Patrice Riemens on Sat, 26 Feb 2011 13:07:50 +0100 (CET) |
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Re: <nettime> Questions concerning Wikileaks |
> I might be missing something, but I don't quite get why Internet > activists keep defending Wikileaks as part of their perceived community. > How many people are aware of the facts that: > > - There is no Wiki in Wikileaks? > - There is, currently, no Wikileaks Internet service for > leaking documents at all? > - That the above wasn't a result of external pressures but internal > trouble and schisms in the Wikileaks project? > - Wikileaks' collaboration with news media such as The Guardian and Der > Spiegel was based on payments to Wikileaks, with Wikileaks working as > an 'information broker with a funny name' (Dmytri Kleiner)? > - Assange signed a one million dollar book contract? > - In May 2010, Assange announced a $100,000 defense fund for > Bradley Manning but not a single cent was ever paid? (according > to Daniel Domscheit-Berg) The only part of the catalogue that is not entirely true. According to DDB in his book (Inside Wikileaks) $15.500-something was paid out to the BM defence fund - but that only fairly recently. Both DDB and JA have promised full financial transparancy in past, present, and future Wklks/OL dealings. We are still far of ... however, the Wau Hoilland Foundation, the most above-board outfit in this particular galaxy, should provide some accounts for their part of the donation business. > Why does noone discuss whether it wouldn't be safer for whistleblowers > to directly contact a news medium like The Guardian instead of using an > intermediary? (Credits to Dmytri again.) It not only would, it is. BUT (i) whistleblower business is quite tricky - there are many ways to find you out, both tech and social (or combo). basically whistleblowing means burning the bridges; (ii) the mainstream media have their own agenda, characterized, aot, by a perverse craze for exclusivity and a pathological aversion to sharing - with each other and with the public. Cheers, p+3D! SUPPORT BRADLEY MANNING! http://www.bradleymanning.org/ http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/ # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org