House committee wants Official Secrets Act repealed
Published:Friday | April 1, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
A joint select committee of Parliament has recommended that the Official Secrets Act be repealed.
The committee, chaired by Daryl Vaz, minister with responsibility for information, said the 1911 Official Secrets Act should be replaced by an act that "would include penalties for the release of information that would put the State at risk".
The report was tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Stakeholders who appeared at the joint select committee, which was mandated to review the Access to Information Act, raised concerns about the coexistence of the Access to Information Act and the Official Secrets Act.
The stakeholders, including media representatives, argued that the Official Secrets Act was an old piece of legislation and should be abolished.
They also noted that the previous governing administration had promised the act would have been repealed upon the passing of the Access to Information Act.
In its report to Parliament, the committee said: "It is appreciated that in order to protect certain public interest, there will continue to be a need for the criminalisation of the unauthorised disclosure of a limited number of categories of information."
Under the Official Secrets Act, the unauthorised disclosure of certain information was a criminal offence.
In January, Prime Minister Bruce Golding told the House of Representatives that he wants to see the Official Secrets Act removed from the law books, arguing such legislation has no place in an independent country.
"This has no place and if next year we're going to be celebrating 50 years of Independence, then I would like to say bye-bye to this before we celebrate that 50," Golding had said.