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Spain: Official Secrets Law

01 September 1996

Following the scandals around the involvement of the intelligence service, CESID, in the GAL affair, and illegal surveillance activities, including telephone tapping, against political figures including the king, the Partido Popular (PP) cabinet has approved the text of an Official Secrets Law to be presented to Parliament. The theme running through the draft law is that of guaranteeing complete immunity for the actions of the government. Indeed, the list of activities which may be subject to official secrecy is so wide-ranging that it covers virtually all functions of the state. This has the effect of making secrecy the norm rather than the exception. Moreover the power to decree any matter secret is not reserved to the cabinet, but given to each and every minister, thus imposing a regime even more restrictive than the present law which dates from the Franco era. Another striking characteristic of the proposed law is the complete absence of any means of challenging the government's exercise of its discretion, even in relation to acts which appear to be illegal. The relevant agency is even empowered to refuse to declassify documents which are subpoenaed by a court in a criminal case, with no provision for appeal. Given that the press has led the way in denouncing illegal activities of the state, the draft law specifically deals with the media by setting out fines of up to 100 million pesetas for publishing any document classified as an official secret. The icing on the cake is the fixing of a 50-year maximum period before the declassification of any document. The opposition with which the draft law was predictably met led the government to halt its transmission to Parliament and to set it aside for the present. Several ministers have claimed that they were unaware of the content of the law, despite having approved it in cabinet, until they read the press reports on the following day. Defence minister Eduardo Serra, the sponsor of the bill, has once again been thwarted.