“The importance of freedom of speech is never more important than when a man hits his thumb with a hammer”

Because I’m full of good will for all mankind today and because I’ve been slightly negative about some of the digital phenomena that I have been blogging about, I decided I write about something I think is truly fantastic. Wikileaks it’s the not for profit media group founded by Julian Assange ,that’s causing a bit of stir in the press .Wikileaks officially launched in 2007 aims to bring material of ethical, political and historical nature to the attention of the world.

It hopes to expose corruption and improve democracy by bringing the unvarnished truth to the world media .It’s core beliefs centre around the idea that…. publishing improves transparency, and that 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. It thinks that a healthy and inquisitive journalistic media plays a critical role in achieving these goals. I think George Washington summed it up very eloquently when he said.

“If freedom of speech is taken away then the dumb and the silent may be led,like sheep to the slaughter”George Washington

The organisation is completely reliant on donations and the work of it’s volunteers , whose tireless efforts keep the organisations work alive. It has triumphed in the face of many lawsuits brought by governments and corporations from across the globe who would hope to silence the organisation and its works. Wikileaks uses many highly sophisticated digital technologies to protect its sources such as high security anonymous drop box fortified by state of the art cryptographic information technologies. After they receive their information, Wikileakes  journalists analyse the material, verify it and write an article about it highlighting its significance to society. Alongside this, the original material is also published, so that the readers can exam the story in the context of the original source material. This also adds to the validity of their publishing.

WikiLeaks has no conection to the well-known encyclopaedia website Wikipedia .The information on Wikileaks is presented in a similar format to Wikipedia however the website is not a wiki and the content cannot be altered by the public.

Some of the stories it’s been involved in bring to the attention of the public include….

·         Changes in Guantanamo Bay SOP manual (2003-2004) - Guantanamo Bay’s main operations manuals.

·         Fallujah jail challenges US - Classified U.S. report into appalling prison conditions in Fallujah.

·         Media suppression order over Turks and Caicos Islands Commission of Inquiry corruption report, 20 Jul 2009 - Exposure of a press gagging order from the Turks and Caicos Islands, related to WikiLeaks exposure of the Commission of Inquiry corruption report.

·         The Monju nuclear reactor leak - Three suppressed videos from Japan’s fast breeder reactor Monju revealing the true extent of the 1995 sodium coolant disaster.

After a news item is published on Wikileaks the content is quickly circulated around the globe .Its reprinted , twitted about blogged about, spread by word of mouse around the web. I think this is an amazing example of how social/digital media can be used to do great good and how technology is helping to alleviate corruption and improve transparency. Gutenberg’s printing press transformed society ,it made the circulation of ideas and beliefs possible .It reduced the barrier of entry for the dissemination  of knowledge and news to the common man .As Washington said we are the blind being led to the slaughter without knowledge. I believe Wikileaks ,or rather the idea of the rapid transmission of ideas, beliefs, truth and news, is a symbol of the next societal transformation of how knowledge is shared around the world.