WikiLeaks and the first amendment

I was listening to a tech podcast debunking the story about how Twitter may be blocking WikiLeaks from being a trending topic, and the discussion switched to how the witch-hunt of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange is an important one to watch, primarily because it can set a precedent for the future of ethics in journalism, and more importantly, freedom of the press, a right protected by the First Amendment. I couldn’t agree more. On more than one occasion, newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and others, have published classified documents obtained from various sources. Why is it different this time around when WikiLeaks does the same? In fact, a 1971 Supreme Court ruling explicitly protected the right to freedom of press for The New York Times and The Washington Post. And since when does a statement from a senator revoke the web hosting service that Amazon provided to WikiLeaks? Why don’t other hosting companies do the same thing to revoke the web hosting services for the New York Times or some other newspaper when the papers do the same thing? Why are we having this WikiLeaks witch-hunt? Look, if Assange committed rape, then by all means let him be prosecuted. He currently made bail in the UK and will be chilling there for Christmas. But this whole conversation about bringing him to the US to face treason and being sentenced to life in prison is simply absurd. The guy didn’t perform some covert operation to break into a government office to steal classified documents. He simply provided a tool for people to leak sensitive information, the same way sources give sensitive information to the New York Times or the Washington Post. Obama ran on an “open government” platform. The administration has done a much better job in being transparent on a lot of things. If leaked documents present a threat to the administration, then the people that took these sensitive documents and dropped them off at WikiLeaks are the ones that need to face appropriate charges. The US government needs to simply say “Ok, we did say all the things in these documents, and we apologize,” and move forward. Find the source of the problem, whether it be bad policies, unhappy government employees, or whatever inside your organization stops you from sleeping at night. Stop going after a prized media tool that provides transparency to the masses on many issues that others want to keep under the rug. After all, don’t we want the First Amendment to be a right in every corner of the world?

via ethiorussian.com

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