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A news leak is the unsanctioned release of
confidential information Confidentiality involves a set of rules or a promise usually executed through confidentiality agreements that limits the access or places restrictions on certain types of information. Legal confidentiality By law, lawyers are often required ...
to
news media The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. These include news agencies, print media (newspapers, news magazines), broadcast news (radio and television), and ...
. 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 a
news embargo In journalism and public relations, a news embargo or press embargo is a request or requirement by a source that the information or news provided by that source not be published until a certain date or certain conditions have been met. They are of ...
.


Types

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 the press. They may believe that doing so is in the
public interest The public interest is "the welfare or well-being of the general public" and society. Overview Economist Lok Sang Ho in his ''Public Policy and the Public Interest'' argues that the public interest must be assessed impartially and, therefor ...
due 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 advisor
Sidney Souers Sidney William Souers (March 30, 1892 – January 14, 1973) was an American admiral and intelligence expert. Rear Admiral Souers was appointed as the first Director of Central Intelligence on January 23, 1946 by President Harry S. Truman, where ...
advised a young scholar in 1957, "there are no leaks in Washington, only plants." 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 media off the record in 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 Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally ...
', or news 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. Some leaks are made in the open; for example, politicians who (whether inadvertently or otherwise) disclose
classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper * The Classified, a 1980s American ro ...
or confidential information while speaking to the press. Leaks can have strong consequences. President Richard M. Nixon was enraged by the existence of leaks, and according to his former staffer
William Safire William Lewis Safire (; Safir; December 17, 1929 – September 27, 2009Safire, William (1986). ''Take My Word for It: More on Language.'' Times Books. . p. 185.) was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He ...
, that rage coupled with the president's lifelong disdain of the press set the environment that led to Nixon's downfall. Most immediately, fear of further leaks after the
Pentagon Papers The ''Pentagon Papers'', officially titled ''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force'', is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 ...
were published in 1971, such as of the
Secret Bombing of Cambodia Operation Menu was a covert United States Strategic Air Command (SAC) tactical bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia from 18 March 1969 to 26 May 1970 as part of both the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Civil War. The targets of these ...
, 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 the
Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...
and Nixon's eventual resignation in 1974.


Reasons

There are many reasons why information might be leaked. Some of these include: *
Politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...
s and policy makers may wish to judge the reaction of the public to their plans before committing (a trial balloon). Leaked information may be plausibly denied without 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 be
morally Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of con ...
wrong or against the
public interest The public interest is "the welfare or well-being of the general public" and society. Overview Economist Lok Sang Ho in his ''Public Policy and the Public Interest'' argues that the public interest must be assessed impartially and, therefor ...
— often referred to as "
whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
s" — may leak the information. *People may be enticed to expose secret information for other self-serving motives, such as financial gain.


Notable


International

*The
Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...
, confidential documents leaked on 3 April 2016 regarding offshore tax havens. *The
Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsche ...
, confidential documents leaked on 5 November 2017 regarding offshore tax havens. *The
FinCEN Files The FinCEN Files are documents from the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), that have been leaked to ''BuzzFeed News'' and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and published globally on 20 ...
collection of
FinCEN The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terr ...
documents brought to the public's attention in September 2020. *The
Pandora Papers The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of ...
, confidential documents leaked on 3 October 2021 regarding offshore tax havens.


United States

*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 the
hydrogen bomb A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...
. *The
Pentagon Papers The ''Pentagon Papers'', officially titled ''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force'', is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 ...
, 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 the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' in 1971. *A source known as Deep Throat, later identified as FBI Deputy Director
Mark Felt William Mark Felt Sr. (August 17, 1913 – December 18, 2008) was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in the Watergate scandal. Felt ...
, leaked information related to the
Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...
to ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' reporter Bob Woodward. *Columnist
Robert Novak Robert David Sanders Novak (February 26, 1931 – August 18, 2009) was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving in the ...
published a leak, outing CIA agent
Valerie Plame Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer, spy novelist, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. As the subject of the 2003 Plame affair, also known as the CIA leak scandal, Plame's identity as a CIA officer ...
in 2003. *As reported in the
Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture The Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program is a report compiled by the bipartisan United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s Detent ...
, the CIA deliberately planted false stories with the media to mislead the public, while claiming the stories were leaked. *The
United States diplomatic cables leak The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began on Sunday, 28 November 2010 when WikiLeaks began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates, embassies, and d ...
of November 2010 in which the organisation
WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
began releasing details of 251,287 US diplomatic cables provided to them by
Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning; December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage A ...
. *The
NSA leaks Ongoing news reports in the international media have revealed operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly emanate from a cache of top secret ...
in June 2013, in which
NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collec ...
employee
Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...
leaked secret documents exposing the American PRISM and the British
Tempora Tempora is the codeword for a formerly-secret computer system that is used by the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). This system is used to buffer most Internet communications that are extracted from fibre-optic cables, so t ...
, clandestine espionage programs. *The Vault 7 leaks of March 2017 in which the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
employee Joshua Adam Schulte leaked secret documents exposing the capabilities of the CIA to perform electronic surveillance and cyber warfare.


United Kingdom

* Spies for Peace, a group of British anti-war activists associated with CND and the Committee of 100 who 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. *The
NSA leaks Ongoing news reports in the international media have revealed operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly emanate from a cache of top secret ...
in June 2013, in which
NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collec ...
employee
Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...
leaked secret documents exposing the British
Tempora Tempora is the codeword for a formerly-secret computer system that is used by the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). This system is used to buffer most Internet communications that are extracted from fibre-optic cables, so t ...
and the American PRISM clandestine espionage programs.


Israel

* Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear technician who revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. * Anat Kamm leaked classified documents from the Israeli Defense Force in 2008, which suggested the Israeli military had been engaged in
extrajudicial killing An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution or extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whethe ...
s.


Spain

*At the time of the Spanish coup of July 1936, the takeover of the
Spanish Republican Navy The Spanish Republican Navy was the naval arm of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic, the legally established government of Spain between 1931 and 1939. History In the same manner as the other two branches of the Spanish Republ ...
by coup leaders failed mainly because the messages calling for a coup against the Spanish Republic were not sent in
code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...
, as would have been the norm, from
Ciudad Lineal Ciudad Lineal ( en, ital=no, Linear city) is a district of Madrid, Spain. Geography Wards The district is administratively divided into nine wards: * Atalaya * Colina * Concepción * Costillares * Pueblo Nuevo * Quintana * San Juan ...
to the senior officers commanding the ships. Navy radiotelegrapher Benjamin Balboa took credit for the news leak.


China

*Leaked minutes from an internal meeting of China's
National Health Commission The National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China is a cabinet-level executive department of the State Council which is responsible for formulating national health policies. It was formed on 19 March 2018. The ministry is headq ...
held 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. A copy of the notes were circulated on Chinese social media.
The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
said it was Sun Yang – a deputy director of the
Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC; ) is an institution directly under the National Health Commission, based in Changping District, Beijing, China. Established in 1983, it works to protect public health and safety ...
– who presented the figures to officials during the closed-door briefing, citing two people familiar with the matter. *In November 2019, the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C. with ...
published the China Cables, consisting of six documents, an "operations manual" for running the camps and detailed use of
predictive policing Predictive policing is the usage of mathematics, predictive analytics, and other analytical techniques in law enforcement to identify potential criminal activity. A report published by the RAND Corporation identified four general categories pred ...
and AI to target people and regulate life inside the camps. *
Document Number Nine Document Number Nine (or Document No. 9), more properly the Communiqué on the Current State of the Ideological Sphere (also translated as the Briefing on the Current Situation in the Ideological Realm), is a confidential internal document widel ...
is a confidential internal document widely circulated within the
Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...
(CCP) in 2013 by the
General Office A General Office (also known as "administrative office") is an important administrative political organ in the communist party organizations and communist countries (such as China, Laos and Vietnam for instance). Generally speaking, the General Offi ...
of the CCP.西藏广电局召开传达学习有关文件精神会议
,中国西藏之声网, 9 May 2013
The document warns of seven dangerous Western values, allegedly including media freedom and judicial independence.


See also

*
Internet leak An internet leak is the unauthorized release of information over the internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, a ...
*
GlobaLeaks GlobaLeaks is an open-source, free software intended to enable secure and anonymous whistleblowing initiatives. History The project started on 15 December 2010 and the first software prototype was announced on 6 September 2011. Relevant figure ...
(software)


Books and references

*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

{{Authority control Sources (journalism) Political communication Political campaign techniques Whistleblowing Secrecy