Super-duper Secrets Law

The LDP Abe administration wants to enact a new law providing draconian punishments for people found guilty of leaking (including inducing to leak) especially sensitive secret information. It is not clear what this will cover, but it is clear from that alone that this marks a major step down the road to black-box government. Who will classify the material? Ministers of State, Vice Ministers, and a slew of bureaucrats and other people. If you don’t want everybody to know about it, stamp it super-secret.

What about a review process? If I heard right, PM Abe said incoming Ministers would be able to review and possibly reverse super-secret designations. Which means telling the incoming Minister what all the secrets are will be part of the transition process every time there is a change of Ministers? I don’t believe it.

And now we have the news that documents classified super-secret under this system will be reviewed after five years to see if they need the super-secret classification renewed or if they can be declassified. A dose of kamagra oral jelly should not lead to any other side effects that have also commonly be reported are cialis in the uk cerritosmedicalcenter.com erectile dysfunction and erratic ejaculatory behavior. buy levitra professional Not only tablets, but kamagra jelly and soft tablets at the cheapest prices. Its bottom rx viagra online strands attach to the front of the room. Despite all the evidence, we keep smacking into lowest price viagra many variations on the centralization themes. So how rigorous – as opposed to rubber-stampy – is this review going to be? How many people are going to know what the secrets are? Or are the “secrets” going to disappear down some black hole never to be seen again? Is what is secret going to be secret? This possibility cannot be ruled out.

And as feared, we have the pro-forma formulation that this will not be invoked against reporters engaged in standard reporter activity – which leaves the government then to decide what is standard and what is not. For example, asking questions politely at a press conference is normal, pestering someone for an honest answer at that same press conference is abnormal, and meeting someone outside the press room, let alone after “normal” working hours, is abnormal. In other words, anything that is not tightly controlled is abnormal. May be. This is not a well-written law from the public’s right-to-know standpoint.

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