Transparency Double Standard: UK Public Inquiry Requests Info From Wikileaks
from the feeding-the-hand-that-bites dept
Well, this is interesting. Given the general condemnation of Wikileaks by governments, all the ongoing controversy and reputation problems faced by the organization, you wouldn't expect them to be approached with any official requests for leaked information. But it seems just that has happened in the UK, where the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics has requested and received a dossier from Wikileaks on corruption in the British press.
On the surface this is pretty hypocritical, and more than a little ironic: in the past, the UK government asked media outlets to brief them on government secrets they received from Wikileaks before publishing them. Now, a government-run inquiry is asking Wikileaks to hand over information on UK media outlets. Apparently they don't hate leaks as long as they flow in the right direction.
Hopefully this represents another step towards governments recognizing that Wikileaks isn't pure evil, even if there are questionable things about the operation. Though there are risks, bringing sensitive information to light is often in the public's best interest—indeed, that's the whole spirit behind public inquiries. The Leveson Inquiry was convened when the News of the World phone-hacking scandal pointed to a secret culture of corruption in the press, and now Wikileaks is helping to expose it further. If governments attempt to maintain secret cultures of their own, they too will be exposed.
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Filed Under: corruption, hypocrisy, leaks, uk, wikileaks
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Media on its own Trail
I wonder who will be covering this story, maybe everyone other than the traditional media?
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Interesting
The problem with the house of parliament and democracy in the UK is its slow to react and once a party is in power its quick to forget it is there to represent the people. MPs get elected like because they represent familiar brands, no one pays attentions to their policies.
Then there is the legislating for the sake of legislating or from outside pressures, such as the Digital Economy Act, causing 101 ill written laws.
It is strange but the fact the enquiry is using wikileaks isn't a double standard to me but rather the saner house of the UK parliament being sensible.
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Re: Interesting
The Lords on the other hand can only be unseated by death or prosecution for a serious criminal offence, and therefore have nothing much to lose by refusing to tow the Party line when it's blatantly idiotic.
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Re: Interesting
The poll tax is a good example. in the time.that they spent messing about with the lords, there were groups throughout the country planning to disrupt its operation, organising non payment campaigns, training people to be amateur representation at magistrates courts so we could jam up the enforcement process, and training people to deal with baliffs in case it got as far as enforcement
I also dont find it hypocrytical, they have given a judge freedon to ask anyone and everyone anything within his terms of reference and he's using those powers to go where he sees fit.
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House of Lords
or replace them with Politicos and maybe some more recent good doers.
i quite like the idea of fairly randomly picked families.
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Not the Government
It does not surprise me at all that Lord Justice Leveson is happy to get information from WikiLeaks; it is not like all the other organisations he is dealing with are paragons of virtue - that is part of the point of the trial. If they have information that could help the inquiry, they could help. Whether what Wikileaks says is evidenced enough to be of any use is another matter.
As an aside, the "Lord Justice" is merely a judicial title given to members of the Court of Appeal, Leveson LJ is not a member of the House of Lords nor a member of the Supreme Court (who are traditionally allowed to call themselves "Lord" or "Lady"). Along with all (male) High Court and above judges, he is addressed as "my Lord" in court, but that's an honorary/traditional thing, and limited to court stuff. Outside that he is just a knight and Privy Counsellor.
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Wikileaks Is Part Of The Press
So Wikileaks is part of the press and thus should be protected by all the laws designed to promote the freedom of the press. That includes, and is not limited to, the first amendment of the US constitution. All actions against Wikileaks are misguided. Any politician taking such action should be fiercely criticised and have their political career ended.
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Not Hopeful
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