Wikileaks and Free Speech
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A California judge ordered earlier this week that the whistleblower website, Wikileaks, be taken offline. The site allows people to anonymously post classified documents in hopes of discouraging unethical and illegal behavior of corporations and governments.
A Cayman Island Bank, Julius Baer, took the matter to court after classified documents were posted on the site that contain, “what are alleged to be highly damaging documents about the bank’s offshore activities,” according to Wikileaks. The court papers stated that the stolen documents were posted by an angry ex-employee trying to harass the company, which violated confidentiality agreements and bank laws, The New York Times said today.
But the court case only seems to have given Wikileaks more publicity. I didn’t even know that the website existed until countless news sources and blogs began writing about it.
The folks at Wikileaks were prepared for something like this to happen; though Wikileaks.org is shut down, the website can still be accessed as it was put online at other locations. A simple Google search and you can easily navigate the site and all of its classified documents.
Jonathan Werve of Wikileaks Advisory Board said on the site:
Even so, the issue of the Internet and the First Amendment are at risk. While the California Judge didn’t succeed in shutting down the website, he had complete intentions of doing so.
All this leaves me with a few questions:
Why was the website taken to court instead of the alleged disgruntled ex-employee? He was violating the laws and agreements, not the website.
Also, if these particular documents were the center of the court case, why didn’t the judge order that only the documents in question be removed from the site, instead of the whole site itself? The situation sets a dangerous precedent for censorship on the Internet.
And finally, if the documents are true and show that Julius Baer was engaging in illegal activities in the first place, who is taking them to court?
—Posted by Brittany Mayne
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