DSMA Notice

A DSMA Notice or Defense and Security Media Advisory Notice (until 1993: Defense Notice or D-Notice) is a recommendation by the British Defense and Security Media Advisory Committee to the media not to send or otherwise send specific information in the interests of national security to surrender any form. The system still exists today in the UK, where the committee is made up of members of the government and the media. The system was introduced in 1912 before the First World War and was considered a compromise between national security and freedom of the press . Until after the Second World War, the D-Notices were largely followed by the media as part of voluntary self-censorship . It wasn't until 1967 that a controversy known as the D-notice affair arose. Then-Prime Minister Harold Wilson accused the Daily Express of ignoring D-Notices when it reported on unauthorized wiretapping by British intelligence. A tribunal later found the Daily Express right and underlined the voluntary nature of the D-Notices. Since they had no legally binding effect, but were merely recommendations, the D-Notices were renamed Defense Advisory Notices in 1993 .

A D-Notice system based on the British model was introduced in Australia in 1952. However, the corresponding committee has not met since 1982 and the system is out of use.

literature

Nicholas Wilkinson: Secrecy and the Media - the Official History of the D Notice System . Routledge , London 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-45375-2 (656 pages).

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Roy Greenslade: The D-notice system: a typically British fudge that has survived a century. The Guardian , July 31, 2015, accessed January 17, 2017 .
^ The DSMA Notice System: Frequently Asked Questions. Defense and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee, accessed January 17, 2017 .
^ Gordon J. Samuels and Michael H. Codd: Report on the Australian Secret Intelligence Service - Commission of Inquiry into the Australian Secret Intelligence Service . Ed .: Australian Government Publishing Service. 1995, ISBN 0-644-43201-2 , pp. 113-115 .

[guardian-2015-07-31-1] Roy Greenslade: The D-notice system: a typically British fudge that has survived a century. The Guardian , July 31, 2015, accessed January 17, 2017 .

[2] The DSMA Notice System: Frequently Asked Questions. Defense and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee, accessed January 17, 2017 .

[3] Gordon J. Samuels and Michael H. Codd: Report on the Australian Secret Intelligence Service - Commission of Inquiry into the Australian Secret Intelligence Service . Ed .: Australian Government Publishing Service. 1995, ISBN 0-644-43201-2 , pp. 113-115 .