WikiLeaks is launched in 2006 by Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, and The Sunshine Press Organization. This non-profit organization publish private anonymous sources and allege government or corporate misconduct through leaked documents. WikiLeaks put much effort to protect their sources and to encrypt their documents, however, the encryption use of WikiLeaks face ‘Legal Challenge’. The encryption becomes an issue because some suspect the encrypted file to contain further sensitive materials.
400,000 documents were released in October 2010 through WikiLeaks, revealing torture and civilians death during the Iraq War. These sources are kept in the Iraq War Logs where stories, pictures and videos of civilians suffering are documented. The Iraq War Logs are also partnered with many news institutions such as Al Jazeera, The New York Times and The Guardian. The spilling of these secret documents marked the largest military leak in U.S. history and raised public awareness of the negative impacts of U.S. occupation in Iraq.
WikiLeaks is successful at raising public’s awareness, however, U.S. authorities turned a blind eye to the reports of torture, abuse and murder. There were 15,000 unknown civilian deaths reported, however U.S. did not investigate into this problem. They claim that no official record of civilian casualties exist. While U.S. authorities avoid to respond to the civilian casualties, worldwide discussions and debates formed immediately after the release of Iraq War documents.
Many criticisms were faced by WikiLeaks eventhough this whistleblowing website offers a voice for the voiceless. Hilary Clinton condemned the leaks to “put the lives of U.S. and its partner’s service members and civilians at risk.” Furthermore, U.S. political circles are outraged when the Iraq War documents were released, they demand WikiLeaks to be taken offline.
WikiLeaks engages ordinary citizens to submit new sources, so their voices would be heard. The leaked documents mark an important aspect of Journalism, to reveal the truth to the public. Participatory Journalism is illustrated through sources released by WikiLeaks because the photos and videos are shoot by the civilians, and the documents record the suffering and the experience of Iraqis.
– Yu-Ting (Tiffany) Cheng