Wikileaks
Wikileaks is a website dedicated to informing the public with classified government information. The website allows for the public to be aware of the hidden agenda of the government. This act is viewed as an expression of our freedom of speech. Wikileaks provides a reliable source for Americans to educate their selves about the actions of their government. It offers a transparent view of the government, and allows Americans to be whistleblowers on unreasonable issues administered by the government. Wikileaks should be allowed to release government information because it aids in providing citizens with the knowledge of important information they may not have been aware of otherwise.
Citizens of this country have the right to know about important government information. It is their constitutional right to know and to have knowledge about plans and activities the government is involved in. The opposing side might say the information wikileaks releases are unreliable and untruthful. They might also attempt to say that the information is released as an act to defame our national government. An article written by Declan Walsh about a false statement made in Pakistani newspapers about Indian generals sated by U.S. officials supports the opposing side’s argument. The article stated that the Indian generals were vain, geeky, and engaged in genocide against Muslims in Kashmir. This article later was discovered to be a fraudulent article planted on Wikileaks to degrade the integrity of the website. Wikileaks did not try to defame our government. The individuals who do not support Wikileaks are the ones that tried to defame the government in order to corrupt the truthfulness of the Wikileaks website. To the opposing...
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...ee with everything their government says. It allows for the people to see proper documentations so they can judge for their selves whether the actions of their government are just and reasonable and whether the government is upholding a proper democracy.
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Work Cited
Cary, Mary. “The Real Wikileaks Threat”. USNews.com, 9 December 2010.Web. 10 April 2011.
Hansen, Evan. “Why Wikileaks is good for America”. Wired.com, 6 December 2010. Web. 3
April 2011.
Kennedy, Dan. “WikiLeaks and the first amendment”. Guardian.co.uk, 16 December 2010.
Web. 3April 2011.
Walsh, Delcan. “WikiLeaks fake cables Pakistani newspapers admit they were hoaxed”.
Guardian.co.uk, 10 December 2010. Web. 3 April 2011.
Quigley, Bill. “Why wikileaks is good for democracy”. Huffingtonpost.com, 30 November 2010.
Web. 10 April 2011
In the last few years, while the WikiLeaks saga has truly evolved. It recently has simmered down as Edward Snowden takes the spotlight in a new leak scandal. This time, the leaks are about the National Security Agency, an organization that provides intelligence about the world to the United States Government. Julian Assange still remains present at WikiLeaks as part of the staff and his most recent actions were assisting Edward Snowden to gain asylum to have a residence despite the fact that Assange himself is living in an embassy in London. We don’t know what the future holds but certainly Julian Assange will continue to play a key role in whistleblowing, and leaking and he may continue to expose more secrets or help those who want to expose secrets and effectively continue to cause innocent lives to be taken through the leakage of classified documents.
After September 11th, Americans looked to the government for protection and reassurance. However, they did not expect to find out thirteen years later that the government did this by using technology to spy on Americans, as well as other countries. George W. Bush began the policy shortly after the terrorist attack and Barack Obama continued it. There have been many confrontations over the years about the extent of the N.S.A.’s spying; however, the most recent whistle-blower, Edward Snowden, leaked information that caused much upset throughout America (EFF). It has also brought many people to question: is he a hero or a traitor?
In early June 2013, Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former defense contractor who had access to NSA database while working for an intelligence consulting company, leaked classified documents reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) is recording phone calls of millions of Americans along with gathering private data and spying foreign Internet activity. The Washington Post later broke the news disclosed PRISM, a program can collect data on Internet users. The leaked documents publicly stated a vast objection. Many people were shocked by the scale of the programs, even elected representatives were unaware of the surveillance range. A nationwide debate over privacy rights have been sparked. Although supporters claim that the NSA only does its best to protect the United States from terrorists as well as respecting Americans' rights and privacy, many civil rights advocates feel that the government failed to be clear about the limit of the surveillance programs, threatening Americans' civil...
Are government whistleblowers acting in the public interest, or do they endanger the public by exposing classified information? Just as government transparency has waned in recent years, there have been several instances of very public national intelligence whistle-blowing. Large scale leaks such as those published by The Guardian and WikiLeaks have prompted debate on issues of government secrecy, as well as the balance between security and liberty. High profile whistleblowers like Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden have, at great personal risk, leaked classified information to the public in the interest of transparency. Leaked media and documents range from embarrassing, to potentially dangerous. Heightened levels of secrecy and surveillance in the name of fighting terrorism have led to increasing distrust of the American government both at home and abroad. Since 9/11, the number of classified government documents has increased from 8 million to 76 million per year (“We Steal Secrets”). Meanwhile, the US intercepts 60 thousand phone and email communications every second (“We Steal Secrets”). NSA revelations leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed levels of government surveillance previously unknown and done with little oversight. Government whistleblowers perform an important public service by exposing secrets and should be protected from prosecution.
Smith, Lewis. "Video: Edward Snowden Tells Oxford Students That Government Secrets Undermine Democracy." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
The Utilitarian Approach is focusing on how WikiLeaks affects the well-being, directly or indirectly, of various parties. On the one hand, the uncovering of misconduct and increasing the transparency of closed government doors are incredibly beneficial to society as a whole. It can often help make government decision much clear and alleviate public opinion. However it can also cause harm. Due the action of whistle blowing individuals or society can be exposed and put at risk and repercussions can include security measures such as censorship and technical restrictions actually providing the general public with less freedom.
...ke a decision but gives no direction on how the government should be stopped from invading their privacy.
His website publishes anonymous news sources and whistleblowers. Its similar to Wikipedia on how its open to the public and anyone can post something on the website. Except WikiLeaks is news sources from people that post information on whatever is g...
...of rights and freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. “ (section 1 of the canadian charter of rights and freedom) wikileaks does not measure the risks of its publication and the effects they can cause people. legislation laws and regulation are created so that society is protected and to have a better sense of accountability. When everything is exposed to the public, chaos is bound to follow. Wikileaks jeopardizes and openly defies the right of privacy, right of accountability and confidentiality among descrete information and data and also causes inconvenience to governments, private sectors and even individuals in various walks of life. after all acts of hacking into something private is inappropriate, dangerous and illegal.
The U.S is at war and it has just escalated and no one knows much about the specifics. Now someone has exposed documents portraying the horrible civilian casualties and some of the unjust activities. This information helps to expose the inhumane way that the war was being conducted and forces a change in policy. This is what whistleblowers do; expose governments for what they are hiding. Julian Assange is one of these whistleblowers and the creator and main editor of Wikileaks (an organization built around exposing governments and businesses for their secrets). He is justified because he leaked a video showing reporters being mowed down with gunfire in Afghanistan. In addition, he leaked important documents detailing the civilian casualties of the Iraq war and the Afghanistan War. Although people say that he is endangering the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, he is not because the documents detail only the events of the war and the estimated
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (N.S.A) subcontractor turned whistle-blower is nothing short of a hero. His controversial decision to release information detailing the highly illegal ‘data mining’ practices of the N.S.A have caused shockwaves throughout the world and have raised important questions concerning how much the government actually monitors its people without their consent or knowledge. Comparable to Mark Felt in the Watergate scandals, Daniel Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden joins the rank of infamous whistleblowers who gave up their jobs, livelihood, and forever will live under scrutiny of the public all in the service to the American people. Edward Snowden released information detailing the extent of the N.S.A breaches of American privacy and in doing so, became ostracized by the media and barred from freely reentering America, his home country.
It is reasonable to argue that, governmental institutions or people with authority are subject to withhold a great deal of information from society. Many may argue that secrets are kept to ensure the safety of the nation. Thus, upholding the governmental duty of protecting the nation against possible threats. On the other hand, many believe that secrets may exist which violate our constitutional rights. Over the last year, Edward Snowden, has made headline news for leaking sensitive governmental information to the press. Edward Snowden is a 29-year-old high school drop-out, who was a tech specialist for the National Security Association. Snowden had discovered and later exposed the NSA for monitoring the nations e-mails, phone calls, and internet searches. As the allegations spread like wild fire, Edward Snowden sought asylum in Russia for one year. Snowden had a valid and justifiable reason to expose the NSA to the world because they were in violation of our fourth Amendment rights to unreasonable searches and seizures. The government called him a traitor, while others viewed him as a hero for exposing the government. Edward Snowden is a whistle blower because he felt that it is up to society to decide if governmental practices are just or unjust. Snowden does “express the highest respect for the law”, and he wanted to protect the right of privacy for American citizens.
Even some of the most authoritarian regimes around today allude to the fact that democracy is desirable. In the 2012 EIU's Index of Democracy, North Korea is ranked 167th in terms of level of democracy (the lowest ranked country on the index). Yet they mention democracy in their countries official name, “Democratic People's Republic of Korea”. Those outside of North Korea might look at this as some sort of sick joke, but it highlights peoples desire for fair and democratic process across the world. North Korea is an extreme case for lack of democracy, as well as an extreme case of government mandated censorship, but censorship is not limited to the low end of the democratic spectrum. It comes many shapes and forms and exists in some level in the majority of nations across the globe. This paper will outline and analyze ...
in any way. Also, citizens have the right to access information in all forms of media to be able to
Transparency- In politics, transparency is used as a means of holding public officials accountable and fighting corruption. When a government's meetings are open to the press and the public, its budgets may be reviewed by anyone, and its laws and decisions are open to discussion, it is seen as transparent, and there is less opportunity for the authorities to abuse the system for their own interests. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_(behavior))