News leak
This article includes a list of generalreferences,butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations.(July 2007) |
Anews leakis the unsanctioned release ofconfidential informationtonews media.It can also be the premature publication of information by a news outlet, of information that it has agreed not to release before a specified time, in violation of anews embargo.[1]
Types[edit]
Leaks are often made by employees of an organization who happened to have access to interesting information but who are not officially authorized to disclose it to thepress.They may believe that doing so is in thepublic interestdue to the need for speedy publication, because it otherwise would not have been able to be made public, or to rally opinion to their side of an internal debate. This type of leak is common; as former White House advisorSidney Souersadvised a young scholar in 1957, "there are no leaks in Washington, only plants."[2]
On the other hand, leaks can sometimes be made simply as self-promotion, to elevate the leaker as a person of importance. Leaks can be intentional or unintentional. A leaker may be doing the journalist a personal favor (possibly in exchange for future cooperation), or simply wishes to disseminate secret information in order to affect the news. The latter type of leak is often made anonymously.
Sometimes partial information is released to the mediaoff the recordin advance of a press release to "prepare" the press or the public for the official announcement. This may also be intended to allow journalists more time to prepare more extensive coverage, which can then be published immediately after the official release. This technique is designed to maximize the impact of the announcement. It might be considered an element of political "spin",ornews management.
Some people who leak information to the media are seeking to manipulate coverage. Cloaking information in secrecy may make it seem more valuable to journalists, and anonymity reduces the ability of others to cross-check or discredit the information.[3]
Some leaks are made in the open; for example, politicians who (whether inadvertently or otherwise) discloseclassifiedor confidential information while speaking to the press.
Leaks can have strong consequences. PresidentRichard M. Nixonwas enraged by the existence of leaks, and according to his former stafferWilliam Safire,that rage coupled with the president's lifelong disdain of the press set the environment that led to Nixon's downfall.[4]Most immediately, fear of further leaks after thePentagon Paperswere published in 1971, such as of theSecret Bombing of Cambodia,led to the formation of the "White House Plumbers"unit (so named because they wanted to fix leaks), which conducted the break-in that led to theWatergate scandaland Nixon's eventual resignation in 1974.[5]
Reasons[edit]
There are many reasons why information might be leaked. Some of these include:
- Politiciansandpolicy makersmay wish to judge the reaction of the public to their plans before committing (atrial balloon). Leaked information may beplausibly deniedwithout blame for proposed unpopular measures affecting their perpetrators.
- People with access to confidential information may find it to their advantage to make it public, without themselves appearing to be responsible for publishing the information. For example, information which will embarrass political opponents, or cause damage to national security, may be leaked.
- People privy to secret information about matters which they consider to bemorallywrong or against thepublic interest— often referred to as "whistleblowers"— may leak the information.
- People may be enticed to expose secret information for other self-serving motives, such as financial gain.
Notable[edit]
International[edit]
- ThePanama Papers,confidential documents leaked on 3 April 2016 regarding offshore tax havens.
- TheParadise Papers,confidential documents leaked on 5 November 2017 regarding offshore tax havens.
- TheFinCEN Filescollection ofFinCENdocuments brought to the public's attention in September 2020.
- ThePandora Papers,confidential documents leaked on 3 October 2021 regarding offshore tax havens.
United States[edit]
- Leaks to the press were commonly made by both sides of the U.S. government's internal debate during August 1949–January 1950 regarding whether to proceed with development of thehydrogen bomb.[2]
- ThePentagon Papers,a top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. Made public on the front page of theNew York Timesin 1971.[5]
- A source known asDeep Throat,later identified as FBI Deputy DirectorMark Felt,leaked information related to theWatergate scandaltoThe Washington Postreporter Bob Woodward.
- ColumnistRobert Novakpublished a leak, outing CIA agentValerie Plamein 2003.
- As reported in theSenate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture,the CIA deliberately planted false stories with the media to mislead the public, while claiming the stories were leaked.[6]
- TheUnited States diplomatic cables leakof November 2010 in which the organisationWikiLeaksbegan releasing details of 251,287 US diplomatic cables provided to them byChelsea Manning.
- TheNSA leaksin June 2013, in whichNSAemployeeEdward Snowdenleaked secret documents exposing the AmericanPRISMand the BritishTempora,clandestine espionage programs.[7]
- TheVault 7leaks of March 2017 in which theCIAemployee Joshua Adam Schulte leaked secret documents exposing the capabilities of the CIA to perform electronic surveillance and cyber warfare.[8][9]
United Kingdom[edit]
- Spies for Peace,a group of British anti-war activists associated withCNDand theCommittee of 100who publicised government preparations for rule after a nuclear war. In 1963 they broke into a secret government bunker where they photographed and copied documents. They published this information in a pamphlet,Danger! Official Secret RSG-6.Four thousand copies were sent to the national press, politicians and peace movement activists.
- TheNSA leaksin June 2013, in whichNSAemployeeEdward Snowdenleaked secret documents exposing the BritishTemporaand the AmericanPRISMclandestine espionage programs.
Israel[edit]
- Mordechai Vanunu,an Israeli nuclear technician who revealed details ofIsrael's nuclear weapons programto the British press in 1986.
- Anat Kammleaked classified documents from theIsraeli Defense Forcein 2008, which suggested the Israeli military had been engaged inextrajudicial killings.
Spain[edit]
- At the time of theSpanish coup of July 1936,the takeover of theSpanish Republican Navyby coup leaders failed mainly because the messages calling for a coup against the Spanish Republic were not sent incode,as would have been the norm, fromCiudad Linealto the senior officers commanding the ships. NavyradiotelegrapherBenjamin Balboa took credit for the news leak.[10]
China[edit]
- Leaked minutes from an internal meeting of China'sNational Health Commissionheld on 2022-12-21 revealed that as many as 248 million people in China might have contracted COVID-19 over the first 20 days of December and nearly 37 million people may have been infected on a single day.[11]A copy of the notes were circulated on Chinese social media.The Financial Timessaid it was Sun Yang – a deputy director of theChinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention– who presented the figures to officials during the closed-door briefing, citing two people familiar with the matter.[12][13]
- In November 2019, theInternational Consortium of Investigative Journalistspublished theChina Cables,consisting of six documents, an "operations manual" for running the camps and detailed use ofpredictive policingand AI to target people and regulate life inside the camps.[14][15]
- Document Number Nineis aconfidential internal documentwidely circulated within theChinese Communist Party(CCP) in 2013 by theGeneral Officeof the CCP.[16][17]The document warns of seven dangerous Western values, allegedly including media freedom and judicial independence.
See also[edit]
- Internet leak
- GlobaLeaks(software)
Books and references[edit]
- Blair Jr., Clay,Silent Victory: The US Submarine War against Japan,Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001
- Lanning, Michael Lee (Lt. Col.),Senseless Secrets: The Failures of U.S. Military Intelligence from George Washington to the Present,Carol Publishing Group, 1995
References[edit]
- ^Jones, David A.U.S. Media and Elections in Flux: Dynamics and Strategies.Routledge, 2016, p. 57
- ^abYoung, Ken; Schilling, Warner R. (2019).Super Bomb: Organizational Conflict and the Development of the Hydrogen Bomb.Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. pp. 55–56, 154.
- ^News Leaks Remain Divisive, But Libby Case has Little Impact.Leaks Seen as Motivated More by Personal Than Political Reasons.Pew Research Center,April 5, 2007
- ^Safire, William (1977).Before the Fall: An Insider View of the Pre-Watergate White House(Paperback, with new introduction ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 376–379.
- ^abLaFeber, Walter (1989).The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad Since 1750.New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 601, 609.
- ^Mazzetti, Mark(December 9, 2014)."Senate Torture Report Condemns C.I.A. Interrogation Program".The New York Times.RetrievedJune 9,2014.
- ^Johnson, Loch K.; Aldrich, Richard J.; Moran, Christopher; Barrett, David M.; Hastedt, Glenn; Jervis, Robert; Krieger, Wolfgang; McDermott, Rose; Omand, David (2014-08-08)."AnINSSpecial Forum: Implications of the Snowden Leaks"(PDF).Intelligence and National Security.29(6): 793–810.doi:10.1080/02684527.2014.946242.ISSN0268-4527.S2CID154484939.
- ^Greenberg, Andy (2017-03-07)."How the CIA Can Hack Your Phone, PC, and TV (Says WikiLeaks)".WIRED.
- ^"Who Is Joshua Adam Schulte? Former CIA Employee Charged Over Vault 7 Leak".Newsweek.19 June 2018.
- ^La Flota Es Roja
- ^"China Estimates Covid Surge Is Infecting 37 Million People a Day".Bloomberg.23 December 2022.
- ^"Leaked notes from Chinese health officials estimate 250 million Covid-19 infections in December: Reports".24 December 2022.
- ^"China estimates 250mn people have caught Covid in 20 days".Financial Times.25 December 2022.
- ^"Exposed: China's Operating Manuals For Mass Internment And Arrest By Algorithm".ICIJ.2019-11-24. Archived fromthe originalon 2019-11-26.Retrieved2019-11-26.
- ^"Data leak reveals how China 'brainwashes' Uighurs in prison camps".BBC.2019-11-24.Archivedfrom the original on 2019-11-26.Retrieved2019-11-26.
- ^Tỉnh dự trữ cục nghiêm túc học tập quán triệt chứng thực 《 về trước mặt hình thái ý thức lĩnh vực tình huống thông báo 》Archived15 June 2013 at theWayback Machine,Hồ Nam cơ quan đảng kiến, 16 May 2013
- ^Tây Tạng Quảng Điện Cục triệu khai truyền đạt học tập có quan hệ văn kiện tinh thần hội nghịArchived15 June 2013 at theWayback Machine,Trung Quốc Tây Tạng tiếng động võng, 9 May 2013