Data on people having collaborated with special services to be classified for ever

The data related to the people collaborating or having collaborated with the information services will be classified for an unlimited term, as the Parliament adopted the law on the state secret on Thursday, Info-Prim Neo reports. Initially the draft provided for 75 years as a term of classifying those data, but the Parliament modified it in the final reading, replacing the wording with the phrase 'unlimited' following the proposal by the Communist MP Vadim Misin. The new law on the state secret will replace the 1994 law. The present classification degrees – of special importance, strictly secret, secret – are to be replaced by four degrees: strictly secret, secret, confidential, restricted. The infos labeled “strictly secret” to be classified up to 25 years, the infos labeled “secret” – up to 15 years, “confidential” – up to 10 years, and the information labeled “restricted” - up to 5 years. Some NGOs criticize the draft. Particularly, Article XIX said the draft had lots of faults substantially endangering the right to free speech and access to information.