The Right2Know Campaign is a South African non-profit advocacy organisation established in 2010 to reduce state secrecy in the drafting of laws, increase

access to information Access may refer to: Companies and organizations * ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network * Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom * Access Co., a Japanese software company * Access Healthcare, an Indian BPO se ...

, and protect

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

especially on the internet. As part of this, the campaign monitors and challenges potential legislation that it believes would infringe on personal liberties and

transparent government Open government is the governing doctrine which sustain that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes national interest, r ...

. It is the first such organisation of its kind in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Activism

Notable events that the Right2Know Campaign has been directly involved in include organising protests for investigations into corporate and government corruption, protect

whistle-blowers A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

, and campaigns to increase government accountability. A significant success of the campaign was the calling for and eventual publication by government of South Africa's list of national key points, thereby informing the public of which government locations in South Africa were forbidden to photograph. It was claimed by government that the controversial security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma's homestead, Nkandla, was justified as it was a listed national key point. In October 2015, South African State Security officials issued a statement to the South African parliament accusing the Right2Know Campaign of being an agent for foreign governments and the US government in particular. The Right2Know campaign denied the accusations whilst stating that it openly publishes all of its financials to the public which indicate no such link and condemned the accusation as an example of the growing securitisation of the South African parliament. It went on to point out that the South African security establishment have previously used such accusations in the past to try and explain public discontent by blaming a range of non-government organisations as foreign agents.

References

{{Authority control Political advocacy groups in South Africa Organizations established in 2010 Social movements in South Africa Computer law organizations Politics and technology Freedom of expression organizations Access to Knowledge movement Digital rights organizations Non-profit organisations based in South Africa Organisations based in Cape Town