NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030061-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 61
• Publication Date: September 10, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Si Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030061-1
ARTICLE EDITOR & PUBLISHER
ON PAGE Al 10 September 1983
Non-disclosure agreements
The rules just issued by the Justice Department (Aug. 24) to keep
federal employes or employes of contractors from making
unauthorized disclosures of classified information they obtained at
work is the most sweeping censorship order this country has seen in
peacetime. We recommend that the President ask for establishment
of 2 new "Office of Censorship and Review" just to handle the work-
load which will be colossal.
The current order applies to the Justice Department but other
government departments and agencies are expected to issue identical
orders to their own employes and contractors. Those with high-
level security clearance must not only sign agreements that unless
they get advance permission they w-ill not disclose either in writing or
orally any information that is classified, or classifiable, for national
security reasons. It is so worded that any employe who is contemplat-
ing saying or writing anything about his job-even fiction-must ask
for clearance. Present as well as former employes '*are encouraged
voluntarily to submit material for prepublication review."
Just to make sure that emploves cannot rely on their independent
judgments as to whether they are revealing classified information,
the order says that "failure to submit for review . . . constitutes a
breach of the obligation and exposes the author to remedial action
even in cases where the published nmaerial does not actually con-
tain . . . classified information."
Of course, the rules state rather nicely that "there is no require-
ment to submit for review any materials that exclusively contain
information lawfully obtained at a time when the author has no
employment, contract, or other relationship with the U.S.Govern-
ment and which are to be published at such time." But, with `Big
Daddy" looking over everyone's shoulders, who is to tell who is to
lmow-whether he or she is in the clear? The whole implication is that
it is better to get clearance than be sorry.
The big question is who will set the standards as to what is sensi-
tive or security information and who will watch the censors and the
reviewers. Washington will now be filled with a wide assortment of
bureaus and departments enforcing their own rules as to what they
consider security information and no one able to challenge the
system.
No one, that is, except the press which will be faced with one of the
most difficult jobs in its history-trying to keep the censors honest
without really knowing what the censors are up to.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030061-1