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Why we've become terrible at keeping secrets

In the twentieth century Secrecy became known as the British disease. We even kept secret the fact we were keeping secrets. Tiffany Jenkins talks to historian David Vincent about the Official Secrets Act which sought to control access to information which the state judged to need withholding. Whilst visiting the National Archives as new MI5 files are disclosed for the first time, Tiffany finds out why a certain amount of state secrecy is essential and how in recent decades keeping secrets is now seen as an almost guilty act.

First broadcast on The History of Secrecy, 21 December 2016.

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Duration:

4 minutes

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