Do Sites like Wikileaks Endangered the Freedom of Press?

Introduction

‘Publishing improves transparency, and this transparency creates a better society for all people. Better scrutiny leads to reduced corruption and stronger democracies in all society’s institutions, including government, corporations and other organisations. A healthy, vibrant and inquisitive journalistic media plays a vital role in achieving these goals. We are part of that media’ (WikiLeaks, 2015). WikiLeaks is a media organisation that helps the anonymous leak secret information by its website. The controversy about WikiLeaks’ role in civil society never stops. The rise of WikiLeaks makes people to take the power of the press more seriously and many hidden realities come to the surface. Jonathan Fildes, the Technology reporter of BBC News describes that WikiLeaks has dominated the news because of the release of secret documents (2010). WikiLeaks as a typical example of media that it has already got the ball rolling. Some people think that WikiLeaks changed the news because of its daring leaking and the special safety way for people to submit documents. Some people think that WikiLeaks is not leaking information in the right way, for these information may shake people’s confidence of the government and the leaks may be killed or arrested. They think it is an inappropriate way. WikiLeaks has been investigated and held accountable by the US government by reason of releasing classified US government documents. Long-running disputes about the freedom of the press are now placed on the table again. The article is mainly discussed whether sites like WikiLeaks advanced or endangered the freedom of the press.

Overview of WikiLeaks and media regulation

The founder of WikiLeaks is Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist and he is also one of the few members of this organisation that well known by the public. As the organisation describes in its website, it is an international non-profit organisation working for transparency. The organisation has its own team to verify news stories by traditional investigative journalism techniques as well as more modern technology-based methods (WikiLeaks, 2015). They show the original source material to the public so that the public can see the fact themselves without the other’s personal prejudice. WikiLeaks published its first document in 2006 that the document was about an assassination and after then, WikiLeaks posted a lot of US Army’s classified documents in the Afghanistan War. The leaks had, somewhat shaken American people’s confidence of the war. The US government put WikiLeaks on the watch list and declared that it was under criminal investigation. The organisation then leaked the Baghdad air strike video that the video was about the American forced killing journalists and civilians on a website names Collateral Murder (Corneil, 2011). WikiLeaks dedicate themselves to expose secret documents of governments, companies and some organisations, especially American government. Their main goal is to make government actions transparent that nothing will be hiding from the public. They public news stories in some countries like Sweden, for the law and the press regulation in Sweden fit their need. Then in 2013, Edward Snowden became famous because of leaking classified information of NSA in Hong Kong. Snowden’s passport had been revoked by US officials. When he flew to Moscow, one of WikiLeaks’ member, Sarah Harrison was accompanied with him on June 23. Later that day, the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange announced they had paid for Snowden’s living expense in Hong Kong. Snowden has a particularly close connection to WikiLeaks. Another exposure event that highly correlated to WikiLeaks is Bradley Manning. Bradley Manning was a US soldier who was arrested in 2010 because of leaking a set of confidential documents to the public through WikiLeaks. Manning was sentenced to thirty-five years in leaking case (Tate, 2013). After the trial, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Ben Wizner said that it was a sad day for all Americans who depend on brave whistle blowers and a free press for a fully informed public debate (Tate, 2013). The freedom of speech on the Internet makes headlines again.