4 ms·

This could actually become illegal in the UK. The official secrets act might be amended to make it illegal to embarrass the state...

by mhh__ 5y ago

faeyanpiraat 5y ago
-50 points from your profile
iggldiggl 5y ago
To quote Yes Minister: "The Official Secrets Act is not there to protect secrets, it is there to protect officials."
- teawrecks 5y ago
  A good faith reading of that statement interprets it to mean: the act isn't intended to keep pertinent information away from the public, but to protect the identities of officials who were tangentially involved. Surely no official interprets it to mean: protecting the public image of officials by way of hiding pertinent information from the public, right?
- switch007 5y ago
  It is amazing how much truth they stuffed in to that show
xxpor 5y ago
The fact that journalists in the UK can and have been prosecuted for publishing leaks is completely absurd. Europeans think the first amendment goes too far a lot of the time, but this is the other side of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._United_S...
jimnotgym 5y ago
...because being an embarrassment to the state is reserved for our government
nemo44x 5y ago
So nearly every pol will have to be locked up.
BoxOfRain 5y ago
An Act of Parliament which would ironically embarrass the state in itself. Unsurprising from the same cast of muppets who wanted to use local newsagents to verify your age for internet pornography and make encryption illegal. It’s not even a partisan thing, it seems like almost all our major parties seem to lose 40 IQ points when the internet is involved. Everyone from Blair onwards has been a tinpot authoritarian when it comes to digital rights.
- mhh__ 5y ago
  I don't think they had the IQ in the first place. More than half of sampled Maps couldn't calculate the probability of two heads in a row from a fair coin

This could actually become illegal in the UK. The official secrets act might be amended to make it illegal to embarrass the state...

by mhh__ 5y ago

This could actually become illegal in the UK. The official secrets act might be amended to make it illegal to embarrass the state...

faeyanpiraat 5y ago

-50 points from your profile

iggldiggl 5y ago

To quote Yes Minister: "The Official Secrets Act is not there to protect secrets, it is there to protect officials."

teawrecks 5y ago
A good faith reading of that statement interprets it to mean: the act isn't intended to keep pertinent information away from the public, but to protect the identities of officials who were tangentially involved. Surely no official interprets it to mean: protecting the public image of officials by way of hiding pertinent information from the public, right?
switch007 5y ago
It is amazing how much truth they stuffed in to that show

xxpor 5y ago

The fact that journalists in the UK can and have been prosecuted for publishing leaks is completely absurd. Europeans think the first amendment goes too far a lot of the time, but this is the other side of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._United_S...

jimnotgym 5y ago

...because being an embarrassment to the state is reserved for our government

nemo44x 5y ago

So nearly every pol will have to be locked up.

BoxOfRain 5y ago

An Act of Parliament which would ironically embarrass the state in itself. Unsurprising from the same cast of muppets who wanted to use local newsagents to verify your age for internet pornography and make encryption illegal. It’s not even a partisan thing, it seems like almost all our major parties seem to lose 40 IQ points when the internet is involved. Everyone from Blair onwards has been a tinpot authoritarian when it comes to digital rights.

mhh__ 5y ago
I don't think they had the IQ in the first place. More than half of sampled Maps couldn't calculate the probability of two heads in a row from a fair coin