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WikiLeaks is an International non‐profit organisation that acquires confidential
documents from anonymous sources and publishes them on their website. WikiLeaks
says it provides “an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak
information”. On its website, WikiLeaks says “The broader principles on which our
work is based are the defence of freedom of speech and media publishing, the
improvement of our common historical record and the support of the rights of all
people to create new history.” It goes on to say “We derive these principles from the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
WikiLeaks obtains its documents from different anonymous sources that can
place any document they wish to share in what WikiLeaks describes as a “high security
anonymous drop box fortified by cutting‐edge cryptographic information technologies.”
After they receive the information, WikiLeaks’ journalists analyse it, independently
verify it and then write a news piece in which they describe the importance or
significance of the information. This is then published alongside the original source on
WikiLeaks’ website.
WikiLeaks is a project of the Sunshine Press, and has no affiliations to any
government or intelligence agency. The people running Wikileaks call themselves “an
independent global group of people with a long standing dedication to the idea of a free
press and the improved transparency in society that comes from this. The group
includes accredited journalists, software programmers, network engineers,
mathematicians and others. 1
In late 2010, for the release of hundreds of thousands of US embassy cables,
WikiLeaks came to an arrangement with some of the world’s most respected
newspapers. These newspapers are: Der Spiegel (Germany), The Guardian (United
Kingdom), Le Monde (France), El País (Spain) and The New York Times (USA). The
arrangement consisted in WikiLeaks handing over the documents to the newspapers,
which would then decide when to publish the stories and would also give WikiLeaks
advice on the written pieces accompanying the documents and when to publish these
on its site. Thanks to this arrangement, these newspapers were able to publish stories
and have WikiLeaks publish the original documents on the very same day. An example
of this occurred when The Guardian published an article on the murder of Alexander
Litvinenko, based on diplomatic cables, and WikiLeaks simultaneously published three
diplomatic cables on the same subject. 2
WikiLeaks depends on donations from the public as well as the work of
volunteers. The money received by WikiLeaks is spent on “servers and infrastructure,
staff and travel expenses, and for the legal protection and advice Wikileaks needs to
operate.” 3
WikiLeaks has published a series of documents that have had relatively
significant impact on international relations and have attracted considerable attention
in the media. Examples of this are documents such as one stating that the U.S. Army
considered WikiLeaks as a threat to its national security from 2008, or the report
claiming that Pakistan’s spy network was allowed by its government to hold several
sessions discussing possible strategies for fighting U.S. troops with Taliban members.
Another leaked document says that Shell Oil company officials have infiltrated the
highest levels of the Nigerian government. 4
WikiLeaks’ founder and main editor is Julian Assange, a 39 year‐old Australian
citizen. 5 Assange is responsible for most of WikiLeaks’ activities and has the say as to
whether or not a document is considered legitimate and can therefore be published on
the website. Assange has been described as paranoid and has led a nomadic lifestyle,
constantly travelling from place to place to avoid falling into the hands of any of his
enemies.
In 2007, Assange claimed that the results of the Kenyan presidential election
were influenced by WikiLeaks exposing corruption at the highest levels of the Kenyan
government. 6 Assange’s activities have been rewarded by certain organisations and he
has won awards such as the Amnesty 2009 New Media Award “for work exposing
hundreds of recent extrajudicial assassinations in Kenya”. 7
Julian Assange was arrested in London in early December of 2010 on a Swedish
arrest warrant for alleged sexual offences. Some of Assange’s supporters suspected that
the U.S. government was in some way behind the charges. 8 Assange was released on
bail nine days later and is currently free, but he must wear a monitoring device and has
to check in with the police every day. Assange said he plans to continue his work and
also intends to continue his legal battle against the accusations. 9
WikiLeaks has continued releasing documents and was recently in the headlines
again over a divulged document that caused the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador to be
expelled from the country. The document was a diplomatic cable in which the U.S.
ambassador said that President Correa of Ecuador was aware of supposed acts of
corruption at the highest levels of the police. 10
Many governments have publicly expressed their opinion on WikiLeaks. Among
the governments that have made statements in favour of WikiLeaks are: Brazil (the
statement was made by President Lula who is no longer in office) 11 and Russia 12 . The
main country to make a statement against WikiLeaks is the US, with Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton describing WikiLeaks as “an attack on America’s foreign policy
interests.” 13
The committee should focus on the following questions:
• Should the web be controlled?
• Should WikiLeaks’ actions be punished as crimes and if so, by whom?
In addition to the pages cited as references I recommend the following pages for
research:
• http://wikileaks.ch/
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/
• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/iceland‐rewrites‐law‐to‐create‐
haven‐for‐investigative‐reporting‐2002591.html
1 http://wikileaks.ch/About.html
2 http://www.statesman.com/news/world/wikileaks‐5‐major‐newspapers‐collaborate‐1098286.html
3http://wikileaks.ch/Support.html
4 http://www.cbsnews.com/8301‐503543_162‐20026591‐503543.html
5 http://www.webcitation.org/5unSsyDzh
6 http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article7094231.ece
7 http://mirror.wikileaks.info/wiki/WikiLeaks_wins_Amnesty_International_2009_Media_Award/
8 http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/dec/07/wikileaks‐us‐embassy‐cables‐live‐updates
9 http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Wikileaks‐Publisher‐Julian‐Assange‐Released‐from‐Jail‐
112032819.html
10 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/us‐ambassador‐to‐ecuador‐expelled‐over‐
wikileaks‐document/article1971843/
11 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world‐latin‐america‐11966193
12 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/09/julian‐assange‐nobel‐peace‐prize
13 http://www.businessinsider.com/hilary‐clinton‐on‐stolen‐documents‐2010‐11