| Contact |  |
- Add to Favorites |  |
Comment - Bottom of article |
TWRToday Twitter &  - TWRToday Facebook  - Tweet
|
||||
TWRToday Supports These Sites: |
||||
Tweet |
||||
As I skimmed through the wiki leaks website to find out what caused all the controversy and why the United States government are so interested in its founder 'Julian Assange' who is currently arrested on rape charges I began to think I understand why they are up in arms about this but considering being in a democracy surely this guy doesn't deserve to go in prison if they merely give information that someone else leaked to them. They should find the people working for them who are giving the information to the wiki leaks website.
While scanning the wiki leaks pages I saw a link to a report labelled 'Collateral murder' where they claim to have a video of an unprovoked attack in Iraq by US soldiers that left over a dozen people dead including two Reuters reporters. They also claim to have 'war logs' from Afghanistan and other Iraqi war files. I also heard about plans to enter Zimbabwe but delaying it as the president is ageing so they are waiting for him to die. These are things many of us have been speculating about for a while so news like these hardly come as a surprise to me as I'm sure there are many more scandalous government 'secrets' that will be made available to the public in the future so what's the big issue surrounding Wiki leaks and its founder Julian Assagne?
With all these leaks and new information made to the public, I'm beginning to formulate some rhetorical questions... Is this the way forward? Should this information be made available and now we have this information what do we do with it? I believe these secrets when made available to the 'wrong' people could do a lot of damage. Imagine if a country was planning a war with the United States? All these leaks could prove detrimental to the citizens of the US or Britain or whichever country's secrets are being let out. Me for one would love to see a peaceful world and do away with wars etc, however history has taught us that the world is somewhat built on wars? How do you think civilisations are brought down and new ones built up? If you study wars more carefully, you could view them merely as business ventures where the victors will take and control the other's resources.
As we are in the information age, the war with the use of information could be even more detrimental in the long run to the existence of some of the civilisation we now live in. It seems farfetched; however the war in Iraq didn’t take long to start so a new information war cannot be discounted. So possible answers to my questions are?
Is this the way forward?...For centuries there have been war secrets, if you read the Art of War by Sun Tzu you will know that the importance of information on your ‘enemy’ is paramount and maybe the most important weapon that could determine the outcome of conflicts. That was thousands of years ago, today we are in a new age with television, radio and more recently the Internet as places where we can get and gather information quickly. Information is now much easier to come by so it was only a matter of time before something like wikileaks to happen. Maybe it's time for the governments to be more transparent and let the people know what they're doing so when information is 'leaked' it won't come as a surprise? As for the answer if this is the way forward? My answer would be I don't know.
Should this information be made available?... Many political pundits and critics alike wouldn't have been surprised by these leaks. The problems lie with the different governments such as the USA who many interests around the world in different countries and they wouldn't want some information to be given to 'terrorists' etc . These leaks will also create tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran and tensions amongst other nations will be evident whether or not these leaks are true. To control a Society or maintain international relations between countries then maybe the information should not be made available. On the other hand for people who take an interest into how their elected governments are operating and interested in world affairs then maybe the information should be made available. It really depends on who you ask the question. From my point of view I do not think we can get rid of secrets in world affairs and the mare fact that there are always going to be secrets there are always times when these secret will be leaked.
According to Wikipedia Freedom of information (or information freedom) refers to the protection of the right to freedom of expression with regards to the Internet and information technology (see also, digital rights). Freedom of information may also concern censorship in an information technology context, i.e. the ability to access Web content, without censorship or restrictions'. Unless countries are aiming to be dictatorships then they should not be against freedom of information, then again we know in real terms that there is a thin line between being democratic and being a dictatorship hence the big objection and demonization of the wiki leaks founder.
What do we do with this information?... Apart from debating about wiki leaks on news programs, discussing it amongst ourselves at work, university and writing about it, there is not much we can do about it. However it will highlight the issue of freedom of information and whether or not there should be an amendment of the freedom of information act or to create new laws to allow or scrutinize information and how accessible it could be and the moment we do this is the further we are going away from being democratic. China, a dictatorship government is going to all lengths to keep information away from its people as it goes against their form of governance. The problem we have with democracies is that we preach the freedom of choice, freedom of speech, freedom of information, yet in practice it is hardly noticeable at times.
Most of the information leaked can be debated and brushed aside without causing any harm. However in the current political climate the popularity of wiki leaks won’t do any favours to any country who want to maintain their relationships and increase trade by getting allies around the world. This could give 'terrorists' vital information to carry out attacks on American interests which is why I think they want to build a case against the wiki leaks founder. After saying that it is good to know or confirm what is happening around us as it is after all us who will be mostly affected. For some reason I believe there will be more shocking leaks to come.
Send in your views to TWRToday Here