Wikileaks - A summary

Wikileaks, launched in 2006 under the "Sunshine Press Organisation", is a non -profit company run by its Australian spokesman Julian Assange and its aim is to create open government and fight oppressive regimes. It achieves this by collecting videos, audio tracks and written reports and records, focusing on subjects such as the Iraq War and international diplomacy.

There are many good things about Wikileaks: it encourages free speech and press freedom; it encourages open governments and politics; it encourages people around the world to share information on the internet; it has of keeping its sources confidential; and it helps to fight (and possibly bring down) oppressive regimes.


However, Wikileaks is not all good; there are a number of serious flaws to it: It can cause danger to democratic societies, such as the UK, by revealing security information and thus exposing them to unfriendly countries and terrorists; It can destroy privacy and people's self - confidence and/or careers; and it poses a threat of serious (e.g. violent) revenge on sources by the people or governments who or which have been exposed by them.


Some examples of their work are the Iraq and Afghanistan War Diaries (http://213.251.145.96/iraq/diarydig/) and the video of two journalists being killed by American soldiers in a helicopter (http://www.collateralmurder.com/)


Trouble was bound to occur with Wikileaks, and in 2010, it did, and in epic style. Wikileaks had published information on its website about the comments of UN diplomats - some of which were hugely embarrassing, including the continued urges of the Israelis to the USA to invade Iran - and also about the security structures of many countries in the UN, which consisted of things like the whereabouts of secret service bases. Britain featured in both sets of information. This shows that the aforementioned point about Wikileaks being a threat to the security of democracies to be very real.


The matter split global opinion; many thought that Wikileaks had gone too far and that they had been reckless and aided terrorism; whilst others believed that Wikileaks had just done what they had set out to do; to create open government; and when a few days after the crisis came to public light, Julian Assange appeared in court on charges of sexual assault and faced extradition to Sweden if found guilty, a movement called the "Justice for Assange" group was formed, claiming that the UN, and the USA in particular, was framing him for the publishing of the information, which was, in their opinion, a good thing.


These problems still exist now. Bradley Manning, a former US army specialist, has recently faced 22 separate charges, centring around aiding the enemy. Manning was in fact, the person who gave Wikileaks the video "Collateral Murder (link above)" and this is the reason that he is facing the charges, which, if he is found guilty, will equate to a death sentence. This proves that the afore - mentioned point about Wikileaks posing a threat of serious (e.g. violent) revenge on sources by the people or governments who or which have been exposed by them to be true. It also detracts from Wikileaks up till now perfect record of confidentiality among its sources.


So, in conclusion, certainly in my opinion, Wikileaks is not such a good thing, as it poses a threat to (a) the people and governments that it incriminates and (b) the sources. Also, the benefits; the possibility of open government and the fighting of oppressive regimes, are either not as important as their negative counterparts or they can be done by military forces. Basically, it is a dangerous weapon against all it incriminates, no matter who they may be, and to those that help it, and is not needed in society.