| The founder of whistle-blowing website 'Wikileaks.org', has been dubbed the most dangerous man on earth. Global truth machine or anarchy? We delve into the guarded world of Wikileaks. "We want to create a system where there is guaranteed free press across the world..", enthuses Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. His site exploded into prominence earlier this year after leaking a top secret video of a US helicopter gunship mowing down twelve civilians in a Baghdad market square; two Reuters journalists were amongst the dead. It used to be cryptic phone calls, or shadowy meetings, but now explosive information is more likely to arrive in an email. Wikileaks operates a number of servers across the world, its HQ in Iceland, where an information freedom zone protects them. After carefully removing all electronic fingerprints, Wikileaks released the infamous Iraq video under the tag-line 'collateral murder'. Critics of the site call such acts 'activism', not journalism. Daniel Finkel of the Washington Post claims "they provided artificial agenda-driven context". Finkel was embedded with the US troops that day, and witnessed the event. But the failure of the Washington Post to investigate the killings has led to criticism of the mainstream media's attitude as a whole. Whether Assange is to be condemned or congratulated, one things remains certain: "every organisation rests upon a mountain of secrets". ABC Australia |
