27 July 2010
Today in Parliament Enver Daniels appeared before the ad hoc Committee on the Protection of Information Bill, and defended its drafting. This unusual step appears to indicate that the Law Advisors are concerned at the level of criticism addressed at their drafting.
In particular he addressed the issues of where the onus would lie when you have a public interest whistleblower protection. The state law advisor says the onus will be on the state to show not in the public interest, and rejected it on that basis. Mr Daniels added that such protection for whistleblowers would mean, “Anything can be published without taking consequences into consideration”.
“This is not a correct construction of how such a section would work. Such a section would in fact put the onus on the journalist to show that the release is in the public interest. It is of great concern that the Committee are being given incorrect information by the most senior law advisor we have. Perhaps Mr Daniels misspoke, but this needs correction.” Said Alison Tilley from ODAC.
ODAC Communication
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