WikiLeaks

It wasn't until I read this page on WikiLeaks that I fully understood what it was, which is quite embarrassing for a journalism student. My first impression after reading that their main goal is "to bring important news and information to the public... One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth.'' This sounds like a good and honest proposal, however it's easy to see where the problems would lie.

The media have regulations and ethics for a reason. Issues such as privacy, personal and national come into matter here. WikiLeaks has faced high criticism and a lot of controversy for what it has published, even getting as serious as life sentences in prison. They wanted to be able to freely publish information without any journalists or writers coming under legal battles, however was this necessarily the right thing to do?

For example, U.S army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning is accused of leaking confidential information and even footage of the U.S army, specifically of an Apache helicopter killing 12 civilians in Baghdad in 2007.  One charge 'aiding the enemy' can be worth the death sentence, which shows the severity of the case. When asked why he submitted the footage and information, he simply replied he believed the American people had the right to know the 'true cost of war'. The footage delivered is thought to show the killing of 2 Reuters workers and children. While we should have the right to know what goes on in our own armies and institutions, and know where our tax money goes, do we really need to know everything? This caused the U.S government huge embarrassment and could have been a massive risk in that footage and information leaked can be seen by anyone, including the enemy. 




WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been accused multiple crimes including the most serious of rape. It is unclear and still undecided whether he is guilty or not. This timeline of his accusations leads up to recently where he has spent the last 6 months as an asylum seeker in Ecuador, despite not being charged with a single crime in any country. His official accusation name is 'sexual misconduct' in Sweden. Mr Assange has made many powerful enemies over time, so it's honestly no surprise that this has been blown way out of proportion. Not to say that sexual crime isn't something to take seriously, but extradition is nearly unheard of for a crime of that degree. 

OK so I'm not technical in any way shape or form, but what I've grasped from all the big fancy technical words, Wikileaks is accused of hacking into certain computers to find their information, however they protest they are just a 'platform' for other writers. Mark Stephens, WikiLeaks's London attorney, called the claim "completely false in every regard." Phone hacking has caused a massive uproar recently with the whole News of the World fiasco. 

Hackers, or stereotypically labelled 'geeks' are usually perceived to be highly anti-social and fixated with computers and the digital world. There are different types of hackers, but inevitably they all access websites they're not supposed to have access too and cause havoc. These self labelled 'hacktivists' use their cyber skills to 'fight the powers-that-be when they overstep the lines'. One hacker stated:

"I'm not under the illusion that we're going to change the 

world, but if we can make a big enough noise for people to 

notice there's a problem and scream loud enough, 

someone's going to take notice.'' 


In a way, hackers and WikiLeaks are similar, in that they both want to give a voice to people without there being any consequences. How effective this is debatable, looking at the examples of the amount of people imprisoned because of their actions for Wikileaks, and also looking at how people can be physically arrested and prosecuted for hacking. 


References/Read more:

Bradley Manning: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/30/wikileaks-cables-bradley-manning and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11874276 and http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/28/bradley-manning-trial-plea-statement
Aiding the enemy: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/punitivearticles/a/mcm104.htm
Julian Assange accusations: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9343503/Julian-Assange-rape-accusations-timeline.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8579045/Wikileaks-Julian-Assange-records-video-blog-of-his-house-arrest.html
Is WikiLeaks hacking? http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_07/b4215046290051.htm
News of the World hacking: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14045952
What are hackers? http://www.howstuffworks.com/hacker2.htm
Hacktivism: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20446048