For any corporation, country, or politician, a WikiLeaks news article about them will inevitably prove the phrase “there is no such thing as bad publicity” wrong. WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization which releases important world news, both private and classified information to the public. This website was launched in 2007 by Julian Assange and The Sunshine Press Organization with a database of 1.2 million leaked documents in the first year and the number has grown exponentially since the launch. This media organization relies heavily on volunteers who would submit highly classified documents anonymously. Although such acts can have significant legal consequences, WikiLeaks has triumphed against legal and political attacks though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a large team of lawyers, and a solid system of security.

WikiLeaks have released many articles which have created a number of front page news items. The most notable one was a package of almost 400,000 documents called the Iraq War Logs released in October 2010. Included in these documents were first hand accounts of the Iraqi occupation told by soldiers in the US army and is considered the biggest leak in the military history of the US. These logs exposed a discrepancy in the Iraqi civilian death numbers, orders to kill civilians who came to close to checkpoints and the lack of investigation in reports of torture, abuse, murder, and rape by the Iraqi police and soldiers. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State condemned the leaks on the basis that these leaks “puts the lives of US and its partners’ service members and civilians at risk. The Prime minister of Iraq and an influential Iranian politician also dismissed these claims made by the US government to incriminate their forces.

A notable person in the Iraq War Logs is Bradley Manning, a soldier who was suspected to have provided a video showing the killing of civilians and several classified documents. Bradley now faces 22 charges and has been in severely punished through military jail and has yet to be tried. Several websites and groups have formed in protest of his unjust and brutal treatment in prison and for his release including www.bradleymanning.org.

A question was raised in class today asking if WikiLeaks should be considered a journalistic organization. In my opinion, I believe so as WikiLeaks does produce news articles to inform the public just like any other journalistic organization. They also claim to have a system of verification of any information that is brought to them to ensure that the public will receive the true story. In addition, many major news organizations such as BBC and the New York Times have used WikiLeaks as a source for news stories. I think that one of the reasons why WikiLeaks may not be considered as a journalistic organization is due to the controversial articles that they produce. Many of their articles expose holes in governments and corporations which are also the very institutions that can influence other major journalistic institutions and the stories that they produce. Although I personally do not follow WikiLeaks very often, I appreciate their existence simply because they make us remember that the very institutions that govern our lives are not always just and should not be fully trusted.

For those who wish to learn more about the Iraq War Logs, here is the WikiLeaks Press Interview after its release: WikiLeaks Iraq War Diary Press Conference

Have a good weekend everyone!