THE Jamaica Labour Party yesterday called for the immediate repeal of the Official Secrets Act, as the nation marks National Journalism Week.

The JLP said the act has been in force since 1911, long before Jamaica achieved universal adult suffrage in 1944.

The JLP, in a statement yesterday, said that the Official Secrets Act was conceived in a colonial era when the business of government was considered to be the business of the governors and not the ordinary people who were expected to take whatever they got and ask no questions.

“It has no place in a modern, democratic society committed to openness, transparency and accountability,” said the party’s information spokesman Dwight Nelson.

“.Appropriate remedies for the protection of the country’s national security interests and the privacy of individuals were already adequately enshrined in the Access to information act, which is now in force,” said Nelson.

He added that keeping the Official Secrets Act in place, despite the promulgation of the Access to Information Act, could be used as a tool to conceal acts of corruption and illegality in the conduct of public affairs.

In the meantime, the JLP noted that the prime minister’s recent remarks about the Official Secrets Act were inconsistent with recent pronouncements by members of the governing party, which suggested that the official secrets act should in fact be repealed. “It also exposes the hypocrisy of the government’s stated commitment to transparency,” the JLP spokesman said.

The party, meanwhile, restated its intention to introduce whistle blower legislation in order to promote clean and corruption-free government, in which the resources of the country would not be plundered and abused by a reckless, insensitive and corrupt government.