Government Classification
The purpose of classification is to protect information from being used to damage or endanger national security. Classification formalises what constitutes a "state secret" and accords different levels of protection based on the expected damage the information might cause in the wrong hands.
However, classified information is frequently ""leaked" to reporters by officials for political purposes. Several US presidents have leaked sensitive information to get their point across to the public.
Read more about this topic: Classified Information
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“Whenever the society is dissolved, it is certain the government of that society cannot remain ... that being as impossible, as for the frame of a house to subsist when the materials of it are scattered and dissipated by a whirlwind, or jumbled into a confused heap by an earthquake.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)