In this age of online technology – wikileaks was waiting to happen. Wikileaks happened to be an online resource of leaked secrect documents of USA relating to its diplomacy and military.
The online internet technology makes for an easier distribution of resources of these leaked documents – and everyone loved to download the content which were ‘secret’ and particularly because it related to government.
Recently the Dept of Justice of USA sent a notice to online sites like Twitter to disclose details of all the online activities of certain subscribers relating to Wikileaks – and they are being charged under the Espionage Act of USA.
There are various issues at stake – some of which may be as old as statecraft itself.
1) Should any Government or its agents be indulging in inhuman acts and thereafter be protected in name of secrecy?
2) Is it wrong on part of anyone to expose such illegal acts of government?
3) Even as such, in a Democracy should the government hide behind secrets?
4) Do people count as part of society and nation – dont they have right to know?
5) What is the role of ‘secrets’ in a modern world?
6) Does ‘secrets’ promote war? Are ‘secrets’ an aid to more of war, terror, violence from governments and between governments?
7) How Law can be reconciled with the increased use of technology? In an era when truckloads of documents can be transmitted over the net in a matter of minutes – how can the systems be transformed?
8 ) Can or rather should the voice of people be suppressed – who advocate freedom of information?
9) Are our government procedures outdated and methods of protection of information so weak that individuals can easily obtains tons of information without much effort?
10) What if the information were not leaked but used by selected interested groups – wouldn’t that pose an even larger threat to any government – than what has happened when wikileaks has leaked it to the world.
External Links:
Wikileaks: http://wikileaks.ch/
