Conference on security agencies
01 November 1993
A one-day conference on the issue of "National Security in a Democratic Society", in London in October, heard speakers from the US, Canada and the UK on different mechanisms for making intelligence accountable. The conference was organised by Liberty and the Quaker Committee on Truth and Integrity in Public Affairs.
Jeff Richelson from the US said that congressional committees had been effective in the oversight of technical intelligence collection systems, but less so when they sought to reorganise the intelligence community or indulge in "micro-management". Reg Whitaker spoke about oversight in Canada which is restricted to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service under a 1984 Act of parliament. Oversight, he said, is institutional not functional (ie: not operations) and that there were signs that the Security Intelligence Review Committee had lost some of its early dynamism.
The second major theme of the conference was government secrecy. In the US journalist were able to publish any material they could get hold exemptions to the Freedom of Information Acts limited the release of information. Laurence Lustgarten said that in the UK the Official Secrets Acts had largely fallen into disuse since the prosecution of Clive Ponting. But the civil law on confidentiality was increasing being used by the state to limit the exposure of information.