GUIDELINES FOR HANDLING SECRET DOCUMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100050005-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 17, 2007
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: February 2, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/05/18: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100050005-5
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
FOR
PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM
CBS Evening News
WDVM TV
DATE
February 2, 1982
7:00 PM
CBS Network
Washington, DC
SUBJECT
Guidelines for Handling Secret Documents
DAN RATHER: President Reagan's new National Security
Adviser today imposed strict new guidelines for handling secret
documents. The avowed purpose is to plug the flow of leaks that
has alarmed the White House.
Robert Schakne has the story.
ROBERT SCHAKNE: To control leaks, the new guidelines
issued by National Security Adviser William Clark would limit
the number of officials with access and require such officials
to agree in advance to cooperate with lawful investigations of
leaks. A spokesman says the Attorney General will decide whe-
ther such investigations will include lie detector tests.
The new ground rules eliminate a controversial require-
ment that officials get prior approval before they discuss
national security matters with the press. Presidential coun-
selor Edwin Meese says the Administration is simply trying to
protect legitimate secrets.
EDWIN MEESE: The unauthorized or illegal disclosure
of classified information could actually harm our nation's
security.
SCHAKNE: But today's guidelines on national security
leaks are just the latest in a whole series of Administration
proposals and actions that appear to restrict the flow of in-
formation. The Administration has proposed cutting back the
use of the freedom of information law, among other things,
substantially exempting even the unclassified files of the FBI
and CIA. The Administration has proposed legislation providing
prison terms for journalists who disclose the identity of under-
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Material supplied by Radio 1V Reports, Inc. may be used for file and reference purposes only. It may not be reproduced, sold or publicly denarutrated or exhibited.
Approved For Release 2007/05/18: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100050005-5
 Approved For Release 2007/05/18: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100050005-5
cover intelligence agents. And the Administration has drafted
new guidelines expanding the right of the government to classify
documents and making it harder to declassify them.
MEESE: What you're talking about in the chronology
that you mention is a series of isolated acts of various areas
of the government that are being strung together to try to make
it appear as something that it is not.
MAN: What you have emerging is a very clear pattern
supporting censorship, restricting the flow of government in-
formation.
SCHAKNE: Critics charge that there will be problems.
They argue that many of the exposes of FBI, CIA, and other gov-
ernment agency wrongdoings were made possible only by the laws
and policies that the Administration now wants to change.
Approved For Release 2007/05/18: CIA-RDP88-010708000100050005-5