Journalists and researchers who have long relied on foreign news posted on an open Central Intelligence Agency-fed website will lose access at the end of this year.

The CIA’s Open Source Center has decided to halt its information feed to the publicly accessible World News Connection (WNC) as of December 31, ending 50 years of this service.

Through WNC, which is administered by the Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service, members of the public have enjoyed a wealth of information collected by U.S. intelligence from unclassified, open sources around the world. 

Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News says WNC has provided the public with “a highly attenuated version of what is available to official government users,” and “has remained a highly prized resource for news reporters, foreign policy analysts, students and interested members of the public.”

According to Aftergood, closing off public access to WNC will not save the government any money. “However, the program is a headache” for those who manage it, he explains, because officials have “to negotiate numerous contracts with media source providers to offer their products to the public.”

“But the large majority of that work has already been accomplished, and now it will be rendered useless,” Aftergood wrote.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

CIA Halts Public Access to Open Source Service (by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News)

World News Connection (Dialog)