John MacDonald and Ross Crail (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- March 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198724452
- eISBN:
- 9780191927478
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198724452.003.0026
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
This chapter concerns the statutory prohibitions on unauthorized disclosures of information contained in the Official Secrets Act 1989, and their interrelationship with the provisions of the ...
More
This chapter concerns the statutory prohibitions on unauthorized disclosures of information contained in the Official Secrets Act 1989, and their interrelationship with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. It identifies the categories of information protected by, and the persons subject to, the 1989 Act. The elements of the various offences created by that Act are discussed, in particular the requirements for disclosures to be made without lawful authority and to be damaging to a specified national interest. The chapter examines the question of compatibility between the 1989 Act and the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, focusing on the House of Lords’ decision in the case of David Shayler. It concludes by considering which of the exemptions from the right of access under the 2000 Act may apply to information within the scope of the 1989 Act.
Less
This chapter concerns the statutory prohibitions on unauthorized disclosures of information contained in the Official Secrets Act 1989, and their interrelationship with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. It identifies the categories of information protected by, and the persons subject to, the 1989 Act. The elements of the various offences created by that Act are discussed, in particular the requirements for disclosures to be made without lawful authority and to be damaging to a specified national interest. The chapter examines the question of compatibility between the 1989 Act and the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, focusing on the House of Lords’ decision in the case of David Shayler. It concludes by considering which of the exemptions from the right of access under the 2000 Act may apply to information within the scope of the 1989 Act.
K. D. Ewing
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199606078
- eISBN:
- 9780191729720
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199606078.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Following on an overview of civil liberties during the Cold War, this chapter argues that courts are part of the political constitution and cannot be seen as an obstruction to government, that this ...
More
Following on an overview of civil liberties during the Cold War, this chapter argues that courts are part of the political constitution and cannot be seen as an obstruction to government, that this is most clearly the case in times of national security, where there is complete deference to the executive, and that neither the Law Officers nor Parliament provide effective safeguards. In the Westminster system of government, everything depends on the self-restraint of governments and where this is lacking the only remedy is elections.Less
Following on an overview of civil liberties during the Cold War, this chapter argues that courts are part of the political constitution and cannot be seen as an obstruction to government, that this is most clearly the case in times of national security, where there is complete deference to the executive, and that neither the Law Officers nor Parliament provide effective safeguards. In the Westminster system of government, everything depends on the self-restraint of governments and where this is lacking the only remedy is elections.
James Purdon
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190211691
- eISBN:
- 9780190211714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190211691.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter stages a new reading of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (1907), tracing beyond the novel itself the communications and surveillance networks that traverse Conrad’s London, in particular ...
More
This chapter stages a new reading of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (1907), tracing beyond the novel itself the communications and surveillance networks that traverse Conrad’s London, in particular the Post Office. It analyzes the novel’s interest in postal systems and its pointedly unsuccessful efforts to distinguish between public and private, official and unofficial, forms of communication. Situating The Secret Agent’s anxieties of information leakage and control in an historical lineage with the postal interception scandals of the 1840s, the intelligence leaks of the 1880s, and the 1889 Official Secrets Act, this section of the book re-evaluates the “gratuitous” and “irrelevant” matter disparaged by early critics. By doing so, it shows how Conrad’s work acknowledges the new social and technological extent of communications control while insisting on the prerogative of literary writing to reshape and critique the new systems of textual categorization that emerged in response to the late nineteenth-century information surge.Less
This chapter stages a new reading of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (1907), tracing beyond the novel itself the communications and surveillance networks that traverse Conrad’s London, in particular the Post Office. It analyzes the novel’s interest in postal systems and its pointedly unsuccessful efforts to distinguish between public and private, official and unofficial, forms of communication. Situating The Secret Agent’s anxieties of information leakage and control in an historical lineage with the postal interception scandals of the 1840s, the intelligence leaks of the 1880s, and the 1889 Official Secrets Act, this section of the book re-evaluates the “gratuitous” and “irrelevant” matter disparaged by early critics. By doing so, it shows how Conrad’s work acknowledges the new social and technological extent of communications control while insisting on the prerogative of literary writing to reshape and critique the new systems of textual categorization that emerged in response to the late nineteenth-century information surge.
Denis Forman
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748617173
- eISBN:
- 9780748671113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748617173.003.0008
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
In this lecture, the author, former director of the British Film Institute, argues that while technology has created the new broadcast delivery systems of satellite and cable television, these ...
More
In this lecture, the author, former director of the British Film Institute, argues that while technology has created the new broadcast delivery systems of satellite and cable television, these developments are unimportant compared to the quality of the programming which they deliver. He argues that it is crucial to persuade politicians that ‘the true value of our business lies in our programmes’. The collapse of the plan to cable Britain offers testament to this view: ‘not many people are willing to pay…for a service that…is made up of the cheapest television programmes’. Direct broadcasting by satellite will eventually be a success, but the rate of penetration will be slow until ‘you decide on the programme policy’. Consequently, the future of broadcasting seems to rest ‘in the hands of the duopoly’. But there are problems here. For example, senior managers seem more concerned with profits above television programming, but ‘efficiency is the enemy of originality’. Another is the failure to confront government challenges to freedom of expression such as the Official Secrets Act.Less
In this lecture, the author, former director of the British Film Institute, argues that while technology has created the new broadcast delivery systems of satellite and cable television, these developments are unimportant compared to the quality of the programming which they deliver. He argues that it is crucial to persuade politicians that ‘the true value of our business lies in our programmes’. The collapse of the plan to cable Britain offers testament to this view: ‘not many people are willing to pay…for a service that…is made up of the cheapest television programmes’. Direct broadcasting by satellite will eventually be a success, but the rate of penetration will be slow until ‘you decide on the programme policy’. Consequently, the future of broadcasting seems to rest ‘in the hands of the duopoly’. But there are problems here. For example, senior managers seem more concerned with profits above television programming, but ‘efficiency is the enemy of originality’. Another is the failure to confront government challenges to freedom of expression such as the Official Secrets Act.
Himanshu Jha
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190124786
- eISBN:
- 9780190991234
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190124786.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics, Asian Politics
Institutions are norms that undergird organizations and are reflected in laws and practices. Scholars point towards the ‘stickiness’ of institutions as stubbornly persisting on the historical ...
More
Institutions are norms that undergird organizations and are reflected in laws and practices. Scholars point towards the ‘stickiness’ of institutions as stubbornly persisting on the historical landscape. As institutions tend to persist, the related political, administrative, and social processes persist as well. Therefore, it is puzzling when perpetuating institutions change paths. This book unravels one such puzzle by examining the process of institutional change through the lenses of transformation in the ‘information regime’ in India by tracing the passage of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. Historically, in India, the norm of secrecy was entrenched within the state, perpetuating since colonial times. Yet, in 2005, the RTI Act was enacted heralding an institutional shift from the norm of ‘secrecy’ to the new norm of ‘openness’. What explains this institutional change? Based on new historical evidence overlooked in the mainstream literature, this book shows that the RTI Act was path-dependent on ideas of openness that emerged within the state since Independence. It argues that an endogenous policy discourse on enacting legislation on access to information had begun since Independence; it incrementally evolved and reached a ‘tipping point’ and, after surviving many political challenges, resulted in institutional change. Initially these ideas emerged gradually and incrementally as part of opposition politics, but eventually became part of mainstream politics. The book presents an alternate perspective to the mainstream narrative explaining the evolution of the RTI Act and makes theoretical contribution to the literature on institutional change.Less
Institutions are norms that undergird organizations and are reflected in laws and practices. Scholars point towards the ‘stickiness’ of institutions as stubbornly persisting on the historical landscape. As institutions tend to persist, the related political, administrative, and social processes persist as well. Therefore, it is puzzling when perpetuating institutions change paths. This book unravels one such puzzle by examining the process of institutional change through the lenses of transformation in the ‘information regime’ in India by tracing the passage of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. Historically, in India, the norm of secrecy was entrenched within the state, perpetuating since colonial times. Yet, in 2005, the RTI Act was enacted heralding an institutional shift from the norm of ‘secrecy’ to the new norm of ‘openness’. What explains this institutional change? Based on new historical evidence overlooked in the mainstream literature, this book shows that the RTI Act was path-dependent on ideas of openness that emerged within the state since Independence. It argues that an endogenous policy discourse on enacting legislation on access to information had begun since Independence; it incrementally evolved and reached a ‘tipping point’ and, after surviving many political challenges, resulted in institutional change. Initially these ideas emerged gradually and incrementally as part of opposition politics, but eventually became part of mainstream politics. The book presents an alternate perspective to the mainstream narrative explaining the evolution of the RTI Act and makes theoretical contribution to the literature on institutional change.
Ewing Mahoney
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- June 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198818625
- eISBN:
- 9780191859564
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198818625.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This introductory chapter provides an overview of MI5, one of a number of security agencies. The Security Service was created in 1909, initially to deal with the problems of German espionage. ...
More
This introductory chapter provides an overview of MI5, one of a number of security agencies. The Security Service was created in 1909, initially to deal with the problems of German espionage. Although its existence was acknowledged by government and its Director General (DG) sometimes referred to it in the press, the Official Secrets Act 1911 ensured that the activities of MI5 were protected from unwelcome public activity for much of the twentieth century. During this time, however, the great bulk of MI5’s attention was devoted to the Communist Party, its members and related organizations and during the Cold War this was its principal pre-occupation. The chapter assesses the extent to which MI5’s violations of civil liberties were sanctioned by the law, and by the human rights obligations then emerging. This is asked against a background of constitutional principle. The first and most significant of these principles is the Rule of Law.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of MI5, one of a number of security agencies. The Security Service was created in 1909, initially to deal with the problems of German espionage. Although its existence was acknowledged by government and its Director General (DG) sometimes referred to it in the press, the Official Secrets Act 1911 ensured that the activities of MI5 were protected from unwelcome public activity for much of the twentieth century. During this time, however, the great bulk of MI5’s attention was devoted to the Communist Party, its members and related organizations and during the Cold War this was its principal pre-occupation. The chapter assesses the extent to which MI5’s violations of civil liberties were sanctioned by the law, and by the human rights obligations then emerging. This is asked against a background of constitutional principle. The first and most significant of these principles is the Rule of Law.
