Seguridad nacional versus libertad de información:la información clasificada y la investigación histórica en España

Zusammenfassung

In this paper we analyze the obstacles presented by the regulation of classified matters in Spain in light of the most recent regulatory developments and in particular the Draft Law on Classified Information presented by the Government in August 2022. We insert these developments in a tradition of imbalance between the protection of national security through State secrecy and the guarantees of freedom of information, insufficiently protected in the regulatory field and also suffering from a marked lack of human and material resources in the archival systems of the State. The analysis focuses on the negative effects that this reality projects on historical research, particularly that which explores the Civil War, the Francoist Dictatorship, the Transition to Democracy and the current Democratic Stage, with equally limiting repercussions on the strengthening of democracy and the implementation of the Historical Memory and Democratic Memory laws.