Hon Chairperson, this Bill attempts to balance the rights of freedom of expression with the protection of children. This was never going to be an easy task and it must be said that there have certainly been some improvements made to the original Bill, such as the restoration of exemptions.
These exemptions, however, only apply to the members of the Newspaper Association of South Africa. There are roughly 500 other publications in the country which are not members and have to comply with the conditions laid down by the Act.
As the ID, we fully support the objective of the Act to deal with the scourge of child pornography but we question whether this Act will, firstly, adequately deal with the scourge and, secondly, whether the right to freedom of expression will not be severely curtailed. We therefore at this stage cannot support the Bill and believe that its constitutionality should be tested in a court of law.
The ID agrees with the assessment of the chairperson that we need a national debate on this issue and that legislation like this should emanate from this debate rather than the other way round. This is the approach that the ID is taking towards MXit. We will be holding an international conference soon, to obtain the views of all parties on this issue. I thank you.