If I were to put myself in the shoes of the citizen who is listening to you testify today, I would say that that means requests for information that the government does not want known. Without directly giving you these orders, he is telling you which path to take, namely, whether you should agree to the request or keep something secret. When I hear you speak, this is what you seem to be saying.
It seems that this is what happened in the case of Mr. Togneri. You were told to retrieve the envelope. For 82 days, you were told to remove 109 pages and to keep 30, which you could then forward to the requester. Essentially, you and your team were subject to political pressure from the government in order to proceed in this fashion. You agreed, in order to buy some peace and to demonstrate that you were accommodating. This accommodation between you and the government is always aimed at serving the government, and not necessarily at serving the truth, right?