Marking of declassification of documents stored in archives

On 1 January 2008, pursuant to Section 157(3) of Act No 412/2005 on the protection of classified information and security capacity, as amended (‘the Act’), the classification level of classified documents was abolished, which arose until 31 December 1992, i.e. before the creation of the independent Czech Republic. Under that provision, the classification level was not abolished for those classified documents in respect of which authorised entities had decided, within the legal deadline of 31 December 2007, that the reason for classification continued to exist.

In view of the fact that there are a large number of documents in the archives on which the formal features of the classified document are still marked, most of which can be subject to the cited Section 157(3) of the Act, or where the classification level has previously been abolished by separate decisions of authorised entities pursuant to Section 22 of the Act or pursuant to the previous Act No 148/1998 on the protection of classified information and amending certain acts, as amended, the issue of how to mark the declassification level on the documents stored in the archives has already been addressed in the past.

The NSA maintains at all times a consistent position that a clear demonstrable distinction between classified and non-classified documents is necessary, in particular to maintain legal certainty for third parties with regard to established legal obligations and to prevent unauthorised persons from accessing classified information.

The classification of classified documents was abolished on the basis of Section 157(3) of the Act by a decision of the legislator en masse and at the same time. Additional information which, pursuant to the third sentence of Section 6(1) of Decree No 529/2005 on administrative security and on registers of classified information, as amended, is included on a classified document for which the classification level has been cancelled – the date on which the declassification was marked, the surname and signature of the person who marked the declassification on the classified document – is not relevant in this case from the point of view of the protection of classified information and can therefore be regarded as unnecessary.

In order to prevent possible damage to historical documents stored in archives for which the classification level has been revoked on the basis of Section 157(3) of the Act, which could occur in compliance with the standard procedure for marking the declassification level, a procedure may also be accepted in which, although the method for marking the declassification level laid down in Section 6(1) of Decree No 529/2005 is not strictly observed, it will be possible to clearly identify the fact that the classification level of a particular document has been revoked. We consider it sufficient, for example, to use a stamp containing information on declassification pursuant to Section 157(3) of the Act (the stamp may also be used for declassification), alternatively to attach a wmk containing a standard record of declassification at each reproduction or issue (making available) of archival material, or permanently attach another sheet containing a standard record of declassification to archival material.

From the reproduction created from such archival material in any form, it must then be clear that it is no longer a classified document, or that its classification level has been abolished.