SEALING UP GOVERNMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030032-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: October 25, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R0001 00030032-3
-ART! LE APPEEAAR~ED LOS ANGELES TIME'S
GIB PAGE=~'=,.~ .25 October 1983
Sealing Up Government
Congress will now have time to hold hearings on
the broadest government attempt at censorship in
our history. That is the most significant .aspect of
the Senate vote last week to block for six months
the.censorship directive that President Reagan put
into effect last March without consulting Congress.
The directive would impose lifetime censorship on
more than 100,000 government officials who handle
.sensitive information. Under the scheme, govern-
ment employes with access to classified information
would - have to sign an agreement to submit to
pre-publication review all written material that
they plan to make public whether or not it Contains
classified material. During their government ca-
reers.and for the rest of their lives they would be
under the thumb of a government censor. Even
fiction based on their experience in government
would have to be submitted to the censor, whose
orders could be enforced by court injunction.
Nothing like this has ever been attempted .by a
prior administration, and the censorship directive
not only violates the First Amendment rights of
government officials but, more ominously, also
undermines the public's right to be fully informed
on matters of grave consequence to the nation.
Would it make sense for officials of a prior
Administration not to be able, to comment on the
current situation in Lebanon without submitting
their -statements ?' for '' 'approval to - the Reagan
Administration?'The mere* thought is absurd. The
Reagan order, intended to guard sensitive informa-
tion, is so extreme that it itself is a threat to national
security because it would deprive the public of
access to a broad range bf views necessary for
informed public debate.
The action of.the .Republican-controlled Senate
gives Congress two opportunities: first, to examine
every aspect of the censorship directive, and,
second, to write into law, if necessary, a carefully
defined policy that protects secrets without under-
mining the First Amendment. The present directive
is simply unacceptable. -
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R0001 00030032-3