ABSTRACT
Leaks to the press abetted by insiders have proved extremely embarrassing and detrimental to many commercial and government organizations.
The motivations to leak information to the press vary. Journalists are often assisted in their reporting by the deliberate connivance of senior figures within the organizations that they report. Many civil service departments and ministries leak confidential information deliberately, to alert the public to proposed budgetary cutbacks, or otherwise obstruct or influence central government plans deemed undesirable. Top-secret papers, proposing sweeping cuts or traumatic overhauls, tend to be mislaid in public places only to be discovered by ‘passing’ journalists.
