19 Oct 10 | Index Index, minipost
The Pentagon is preparing itself for the release of 400,000 intelligence files relating to the Iraq war. Following Wikileaks’ release of 77,000 files concerning operations in Afghanistan, the whistle-blowing site is believed to have gathered further documents from a database in Iraq. A Pentagon spokesman said an assembled team of 120 was scouring the files in an effort to discern the impact of the coming release. He also urged Wikileaks to return the documents to the US military. Wikileaks are again thought to be teaming up with The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel and Newsweek for the release of the material. It is uncertain when the documents will be made available to the public.
04 Oct 10 | Uncategorized
This article originally appeared in The Guardian
Where do you draw the line between free speech and national security? At what point do issues of justice trump potential threats to soldiers, translators and informants?
Last Thursday, Julian Assange answered these questions and more in a debate pitting him against the Times columnist David Aaronovitch at London’s City University that was sold out within hours, with TV crews and photographers flying in from around the world.
Assange found himself having to defend WikiLeaks, in particular the leaking of documents detailing Nato’s actions in Afghanistan. How would he feel if any Afghan citizens were killed as a result? Assange replied that the Pentagon had not identified a single person who had been harmed. But he added, somewhat chillingly: “I’m not scared to make mistakes or be blamed, or even accidentally cause harm in the cause of justice.”
The circumstances surrounding the debate were bizarre. Assange had contacted Index on Censorship’s chief executive, John Kampfner, through an intermediary: he would be in London, would Index be interested in hosting a talk by him?
Assange was told he would have to debate with one of his sternest critics. He agreed but had his own stipulations: no press photographers at the event; it could only be filmed by a camerawoman sanctioned by Index and the university; there would be no press calls, or live stream (this caused considerable consternation on Twitter).
How could Index, the UK’s leading free expression organisation, keep out broadcast media? In the end we decided it was worth going ahead. People in the lecture theatre would be free to tweet and liveblog.
The days leading up to the debate were tense: Assange went awol, and 36 hours before the event we were seriously considering cancelling. After a day and a half of nervous phonecalls, however, he emerged and was led through the university’s back corridors, avoiding the waiting cameras.
As the debate ended, the photographers and film crews were allowed in. A sensible compromise had been reached. But the situation demonstrated the tightrope that free-speech campaigners walk every day.
01 Oct 10 | News and features, United Kingdom
Read our live blog of Too Much Information, Index’s panel discussion at City University featuring Julian Assange and David Aaronovitch.
Plus watch video of the event here
<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=dedd3d58f3″ mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=dedd3d58f3″ >Too Much Information</a>
09 Aug 10 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
A Swedish newspaper has claimed that Wikileaks is not fully protected by Swedish law and so could be vulnerable to demands to reveal its sources. Håkan Rustand, deputy to the acting Chancellor of Justice, claims that simply placing Wikileaks’ server in Sweden does not mean that it is automatically protected by Swedish law. The article in the Sydsvenskam newspaper claims that Wikileaks does not have the necessary licence to publish material in Sweden, thus leaving it only partially protected by law.
