An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to

national security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...

but in unrevised form (based on the UK

Official Secrets Act 1911 The Official Secrets Act 1911 (1 & 2 Geo 5 c 28) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaces the Official Secrets Act 1889. The Act was introduced in response to public alarm at reports of wide-scale espionage, some of them ...

) can include all information held by government bodies. OSAs are currently in-force in over 40 countries (mostly former British colonies) including Bangladesh, Kenya, Pakistan, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Myanmar, Uganda, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, and have previously existed in Canada and New Zealand. There were earlier English and British precedents, long before the acts enumerated here. As early as the 16th Century, following Francis Drake's circumnavigation, Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

declared that all written accounts of Drake's voyages were to become the 'Queen's secrets of the Realm'. In addition, Drake and the other participants of his voyages were sworn to their secrecy on the pain of death; the Queen intended to keep Drake's activities away from the eyes of rival Spain.

Countries and legislation

Australia

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

previously had Part VII of the

Crimes Act 1914 The ''Crimes Act 1914'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia which addresses the most serious federal offences — that is, crimes against the Commonwealth. It was the first major federal criminal law since the Federation of Australi ...

(Commonwealth), entitled ''Official Secrets and Unlawful Soundings'', since repealed and replaced with Part 5.6 – Secrecy of Information of the Criminal Code Act (1995).

Canada

The British Official Secrets Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 52) was adopted in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

with minor modifications in 1890. Its provisions became part of the

Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that migh ...

in 1892. The Official Secrets Act (Canada) 1939 replaced the Criminal Code provisions and utilised the provisions of the British Official Secrets Acts 1911 and 1920. Amendments were made in 1950, 1967, 1970 and 1973. The Official Secrets Act (Canada) 1981 was the final version of that law adopted by the House of Commons. In 2001, the Act was repealed and replaced by the

Security of Information Act The ''Security of Information Act'' (R.S.C. 1985, c. O-5), formerly known as the ''Official Secrets Act'', is an Act of the Parliament of Canada that addresses national security concerns, including threats of espionage by foreign powers and terr ...

, created in the wake of

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

to replace the vaguely-worded Official Secrets Act. 22 prosecutions occurred under the Official Secrets Act in Canada, over half of which were in relation to the

Gouzenko Affair The Gouzenko Affair was the name given to events in Canada surrounding the defection of Igor Gouzenko from the Soviet Union in 1945 and his subsequent allegations regarding the existence of a Soviet spy ring of Canadian Communists. Gouzenko's d ...

. In 1989, Stephen Joseph Ratkai was charged and convicted under the Act, of espionage in relation to the

SOSUS The Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was a submarine detection system based on passive sonar developed by the United States Navy to track Soviet submarines. The system's true nature was classified with the name and acronym SOSUS themselves classi ...

network site at

Naval Station Argentia Naval Station Argentia is a former base of the United States Navy that operated from 1941 to 1994. It was established in the community of Argentia in what was then the Dominion of Newfoundland, which later became the tenth Canadian province, Ne ...

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

has the Official Secrets Ordinance 1997 (Cap. 521), in which it is largely based on the British

Official Secrets Acts 1911 to 1989 An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their su ...

India

Ireland

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

has the Official Secrets Act 1963, that repealed the previous British legislation of 1911 and 1920. The Official Secrets Act, as amended, applies to all

civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and potentially anyone within the state. A suit may only be instigated at the approval of the

Attorney General of Ireland The Attorney General of Ireland ( ga, An tArd-Aighne) is a constitutional officer who is the legal adviser to the Government and is therefore the chief law officer of the State. The attorney general is not a member of the Government but does pa ...

, additionally proceedings may occur

in camera ''In camera'' (; Latin: "in a chamber"). is a legal term that means ''in private''. The same meaning is sometimes expressed in the English equivalent: ''in chambers''. Generally, ''in-camera'' describes court cases, parts of it, or process wh ...

but the verdict and any sentence must occur in public.

Jersey

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

has the Official Secrets (Jersey) Law 1952.

Malaysia

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

has the

Official Secrets Act 1972 The Official Secrets Act 1972 ( ms, Akta Rahsia Rasmi 1972, abbreviated OSA), is a statute in Malaysia prohibiting the dissemination of information classified as an official secret. The legislation is based on the Official Secrets Act of the United ...

, prohibiting the collection, possession or distribution of information marked as an official secret – an action which can be made by any public officer. The certification of a document as an official secret is not subject to

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...

, and a violation of the act is punishable with between one and seven years' imprisonment. The act has been controversial for its use to silence dissent and stifling anti-corruption activities.

New Zealand

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, the

Official Secrets Act 1951 The Official Secrets Act 1951 (long title: "An Act to make better provision in respect of official secrets") was a statute of the New Zealand Parliament. It was based on the UK Official Secrets Act 1911, and provided for criminal penalties for es ...

was repealed by the

Official Information Act 1982 The Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) is an Act of the New Zealand Parliament which creates a public right to access information held by government bodies. It is New Zealand's primary freedom of information law and has become an important pa ...

Singapore

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, the Official Secrets Act (Cap. 213, 2012 Rev. Ed.) prohibits the disclosure of official documents and information. The Act was first introduced to Singapore in 1935 as the Official Secrets Ordinance. Section 5 of the Act prohibits the wrongful communication of information that is considered sensitive by the government.

United Kingdom

Official Secrets Acts of the UK include: * Official Secrets Act 1889 *

Official Secrets Act 1920 The Official Secrets Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo 5 c 75) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 1 – Unauthorised use of uniforms; falsification of reports, forgery, personation, and false documents Sections 1(1) and (2) provide ...

* Official Secrets Act 1939 *

Official Secrets Act 1989 The Official Secrets Act 1989 (c. 6) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repeals and replaces section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, thereby removing the public interest defence created by that section. Lord Bingham s ...

People working with

sensitive information Information sensitivity is the control of access to information or knowledge that might result in loss of an advantage or level of security if disclosed to others. Loss, misuse, modification, or unauthorized access to sensitive information can ...

are commonly required to sign a statement to the effect that they agree to abide by the restrictions of the Official Secrets Act. This is popularly referred to as "signing the Official Secrets Act". Signing this has no effect on which actions are legal, as the act is a

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, not a

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

, and individuals are bound by it whether or not they have "signed" the act. Signing it is intended more as a reminder to the person that they are under such obligations. In addition to the Official Secrets Acts, the repealed

Naval Discipline Act 1957 The Naval Discipline Act 1957 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom governing discipline in the Royal Navy. It governed courts-martial and criminal penalties for crimes committed by officers and ratings of the Royal Navy. It was sub ...

made it an offence to spy on-board

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

ships or overseas bases. It was punishable by life imprisonment and was a capital offence until 1981.

United States

The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

does not have a broad-reaching Official Secrets Act, although the

Espionage Act of 1917 The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (War ...

has similar components. Much of the Espionage Act remains in force, although some has been struck down by the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

unconstitutional Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...

because of the

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

(see '' United States v. The Progressive'', ''

Brandenburg v. Ohio ''Brandenburg v. Ohio'', 395 U.S. 444 (1969), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court interpreting the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Court held that the government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless that s ...

'', ''

New York Times Co. v. United States ''New York Times Co. v. United States'', 403 U.S. 713 (1971), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on the First Amendment right of Freedom of the Press. The ruling made it possible for ''The New York Times'' and ''The ...

''). , enacted in 1951, makes dissemination of secret information involving

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

, and

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...

illegal for all people, and is thus an "official secrets act" limited to those subjects.

Notes and references

External links

Troubled history of Official Secrets Act
''

BBC News Online BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. It is one of the most popular news websites, with 1.2 billion website visits in April 2021, as well as being used by 60% of the U ...

''
Canada's Security of Information Act
* Christopher Moran, ''Classified: Secrecy and the State in Modern Britain'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). {{UK legislation National security policies Classified information Classified information in the United Kingdom Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom English criminal law