Censorship Guide (Part 7: Secrets)

This part of the Censorship guide offers another perspective on censorship (and on privacy) by examining official secrets legislation, government secrecy regimes and freedom of information.

legislation

In Australia there is no 'Official Secrets' Act as such at the national level. The Crimes Act 1914 covers unauthorised disclosure of Commonwealth information and there are specific provisions in other legislation.

The states and territories have legislation dealing with disclosure of their information, whether generally or on a more restricted basis such as protection of registers under the Northern Territory Sacred Sites Act 1989.

Contract and other law provides protection in the private sector for trade secrets and information supplied on a confidential basis. Our intellectual property guide deals with copyright, patent and other IP protection of information.

At the national level the Archives Act 1983 and complementary Freedom of Information Act 1982 cover the retention of information by the national bureaucracy and long term access to that info. The Archives Act is administered by the National Archives of Australia (NAA); its site is a starting point for understanding how the legislation works and what it covers - especially important since many Commonwealth records are disappearing into the ether as agencies rely on information technology rather than dried tree-flakes embellished with ink. The recent Australian Law Reform Commission report on the legislation provides insights from the perspective of administrative accountability and a national information policy, one of the more unfashionable concepts in Canberra.

The Commission also produced a report on the Freedom of Information Act, provocatively titled Open Government.

studies

Ralph McCoy's online Freedom of the Press: An Annotated Bibliography is an authoritative and comprehensive guide to several thousand books and articles on freedom of the press.

The detailed Espionage & Secrecy: The Official Secrets Act 1911-1989 of the United Kingdom (London, Routledge 91) by Rosamund Thomas and Secrecy & Power in the British State: A History of the Official Secrets Acts (London, Pluto 97) by Ann Rogers are studies of the UK experience. David Hooper's Official Secrets: The Use & Abuse of the Act (London, Secker & Warburg 87) is a more anecdotal - and entertaining - treatment. Hugo Young's The Crossman Affair (London, Hamilton 76) retains its status as the definitive study of changes to UK Cabinet secrecy.

Among the extensive literature about US secrecy legislation and policy we recommend Daniel Moynihan's Secrecy: The American Experience (New Haven, Yale Uni Press 99). A Culture Of Secrecy: The Government Versus The People's Right To Know (Lawrence, Uni of Kansas Press 98) is a useful collection of essays edited by Athan Theoharis.

In Australia Greg Terrill's Secrecy & Openness: The Federal Government From Menzies To Whitlam & Beyond (Melbourne, Melbourne Uni Press 00) considers official secrecy, freedom of information and archives legislation from a national information policy perspective. In The Name of National Security (North Ryde, LBC 95) by Vincent Morabito & Hoong Lee is of interest for information law in Australia. Terrill co-edited the collection of papers in Open Government: Freedom Of Information & Privacy (Basingstoke, Macmillan 98)