#wikileaks - in defence of
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Reporters Without Borders condemns the blocking, cyber-attacks and political pressure being directed at cablegate.wikileaks.org , the website dedicated to the US diplomatic cables. The organization is also concerned by some of the extreme comments made by American authorities concerning WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. Earlier this week, after the publishing several hundred of the 250.000 cables it says it has in its possession, WikiLeaks had to move its site from its servers in Sweden to servers in the United States controlled by online retailer Amazon. Amazon quickly came under pressure to stop hosting WikiLeaks from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and its chairman, Sen.
Reporters Sans Frontières - Wikileaks hounded?
Disclosures and leaks have been a feature of all times, but never before has a non state- or non- corporate affiliated group done this at the scale Wikileaks managed to with first the ‘collateral murder video’, then the ‘Afghan War Logs’ and now ‘Cablegate’. It looks like we have now reached the moment that the quantitative leap is morphing into a qualitative one. When Wikileaks hit the mainstream early in 2010, this was not yet the case. In a sense, the ‘colossal’ Wikileaks disclosures can simply be explained as a consequence of the dramatic spread of IT usage, together with a dramatic drop in its costs, including those for the storage of millions of documents.
12 Theses on Wikileaks - Le Monde diplomatique - English edition
WikiLeaks, une vérité insoutenable ? | Piratage(s)
“Une société transparente est une société totalitaire” F. Baroin (à propos de WikiLeaks) le 29.11.2010 Aucune “révélation” fracassante, rien qui ne peut ébranler le monde. Pourtant WikiLeaks a frappé le cœur du système. Il a rapporté les petites phrases diplomatiques des uns sur les autres, un gossip mondial qui expose finalement ce qui se savait ou se subodorait déjà. En substance, que la diplomatie bruisse de petites phrases, s’arrange de coups tordus, d’avis plus ou moins autorisés forcément subjectifs sur un chef d’État ou un pays.
From the Sydney Morning Herald I note you made a comment of "illegal" on the matter of Mr Assange in relation to the ongoing leaks of US diplomatic cables. Previously your colleague and Attorney General the Honourable McClelland announced an investigation of possible criminality by Mr Assange. As a lawyer and citizen I find this most disturbing, particularly so when a brief perusal of the Commonwealth Criminal Code shows that liability arises under the Espionage provisions, for example, only when it is the Commonwealth's "secrets" that are disclosed and that there must be intent to damage the Commonwealth. Likewise under Treason law, there must be an intent to assist an enemy. Clearly, and reinforced by publicly available material such as Professor Saul's excellent article:
2010-12-04: NSW Supreme Court Solicitor Peter Kemp: Letter to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard | WL Central
Augmentons nos démocraties de quelques lignes de code » Article » OWNI, Digital Journalism
Nous ne vivons pas seulement une crise mais une opportunité sans précédent, celle d'augmenter nos démocraties des valeurs et outils issus des réseaux technologiques. En toute logique, l'information est la première touchée. Retour sur "le cas Wikileaks". Permettez-moi de douter, peut-être, de l’impact des révélations de WikiLeaks sur la diplomatie internationale ou l’art de la guerre, mais en rien des conséquences pour l’écosystème de l’information et l’économie des médias. Olivier Tesquet compare l’impact de WikiLeaks pour la presse à celui qu’a eu Napster pour l’industrie de la musique . “Après, rien ne fut plus pareil” caricature, mais sans réellement s’y tromper, son fondateur dans The Social Network .
WHILE fascinating in their own right, these WikiLeaks document dumps are also fascinating in the way they draw out fairly fundamental intuitions about the rights and privileges of the American state. Earlier today I attempted to draw up a taxonomy of different ideological/character types elicited by WikiLeaks, but quickly became mired in the complexity of it all. Rather than diagnose the world, I'll just diagnose myself in contrast to my colleague. In this morning's post , my worldly co-blogger characterises the content of the tens of thousands classified diplomatic cables as mere "gossip", and maintains "that grabbing as many diplomatic cables as you can get your hands on and making them public is not a socially worthy activity". I strongly disagree.
Overseeing state secrecy: In defence of WikiLeaks | The Economist
The Shameful Attacks on Julian Assange - David Samuels - International - The Atlantic
Getty Images Julian Assange and Pfc Bradley Manning have done a huge public service by making hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents available on Wikileaks -- and, predictably, no one is grateful. Manning, a former army intelligence analyst in Iraq, faces up to 52 years in prison.
Wikileaks et la révolte du clergé » Article » OWNI, Digital Journalism
Éric Scherer fustige les réactions hostiles à WikiLeaks d'une partie des médias traditionnels. Face à ce nouveau venu qui bouscule encore un peu plus les anciennes pratiques du métier, il est urgent d'évoluer. "WikiLeaks, c'est très vilain, comme tout ce qui se fait sur le Net d'ailleurs." Quand j’entends, depuis une semaine, les cris d’orfraies, le dénigrement, le mépris, l’inquiétude qui émanent du clergé médiatique face aux nouvelles fuites de WikiLeaks, je vois, hélas, une profession minée par des forces conservatrices et protectrices d’un ordre ancien, hostile à l’évolution de ses pratiques, qui veut se cramponner à des comportements d’un autre âge. Comme le disent plusieurs voix ce week-end, il s’agit du premier vrai conflit [en] entre l’ordre établi, l’establishment, et la nouvelle culture du web. Pierre Chappaz parle de la première infowar.In 2007, Time magazine's person of the year was 'you' – for "… seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game. ” In highlighting this new 'digital democracy', there was a recognition of positive and negative implications of this democratic and, seemingly, uncontrollable medium. For years, books, articles and commentators have been warning us that privacy is dead.
Wetting our WikiLeaks whistle | Natasha Stott Despoja | Commentary | Business Spectator
Elizabeth Cook's artist impression of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, where he was denied bail after appearing on an extradition warrant. Source: AP WIKILEAKS deserves protection, not threats and attacks. IN 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News , wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win." His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.
Assange The Oz - Don't shoot messenger
For some, WikiLeaks’ recent dump of diplomatic cables seems to make an excellent case for why traditional journalism still matters. Others, however, suggest that the widespread condemnation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a sign of a toothless legacy media that can’t do its own work — and a triumph for new forms of journalism. The truth is, though, that everyone here is a winner — traditional media and non-traditional journalism and, most importantly, the public.
Why WikiLeaks’ latest document dump makes everyone in journalism — and the public — a winner » Nieman Journalism Lab
With every day, with every passing hour, the power of the state mobilizes against Wikileaks and Julian Assange, its titular leader. The inner processes of statecraft have never been so completely exposed as they have been in the last week. The nation state has been revealed as some sort of long-running and unintentionally comic soap opera. She doesn’t like him; he doesn’t like them; they don’t like any of us!