Surveillance Report: R2K launches SPOOKED

On Wednesday, 04 July 2018, the Right2Know Campaign launches SPOOKED, a new report on surveillance of journalists in South Africa, followed by a panel discussion on media freedom and the threat of state spying.

PANEL: Khadija Patel (Mail&Guardian), Duduetsang Makuse (SOS Coalition), Murray Hunter (R2K)

This latest R2K report looks at a range of case studies of journalists who appear to have been spied on, to unpack what happened, how it happened, and which parties appear to be responsible. The aim is twofold: to give journalists a better picture of the threats they might face so they can better defend themselves, and to rally the broader public to ensure an end to these surveillance abuses and the bad policies that enable them.

This discussion comes at the same time as two critical opportunities for surveillance reform in South Africa. Our main surveillance law, RICA, faces a constitutional challenge by the AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism — and President Cyril Ramaphosa has initiated a panel to review the operations of the State Security Agency, which has been implicated in a range of surveillance abuses.

Event details:

Venue:   Institute for the Advancement of Journalism

18 Cedar Ave, Richmond, Johannesburg

Date: 04 July 2018

Time: 11:30 AM – 1 PM R2K-Surveillance-of-Journalists-Report-2018-web

For media comments contact:

Murray Hunter: 072 672 5468

Thami Nkosi:  062 624 5992

Karabo Rajuili: 082 365 6553

Busi Mtabane: 083 329 7844

Download the full report here.