At the beginning of the film the Minister of Culture has Dreyman's house bugged and put under surveillance. The Minister is motivated to find dirt on Dreyman because he is interested in Dreyman's girlfriend. However, the agent tasked with surveilling Dreyman begins to empathize with him and falsifies reports to hide his subversive activities. Without the agent's help, Dreyman would have quickly been brought in by the secret police for writing the article. Dreyman's privacy, as protected by a friendly government operative, is therefore instrumental in enabling him to publish his article safely.