In the previous blog I mentioned a quote written by Julian Assange in The Australian; “democratic societies need a strong media and Wikileaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest.”
In an interview posted on YouTube between Julian Assange and a TED interviewer, Assange goes through three cases in which the information they posted on Wikileaks came to change the world in some way. One of these cases was in Kenya, in which Wikileaks was sent documents about corruption in the Kenyan government. They posted them online and when the voting for a new President came around the vote was swayed by 10%.
The only way the Kenyan public would’ve been able to hear about this document would be through the media.
What Assange has said is true. Governments could get away with all sorts, if they try, and they have, but it is the media, journalists, news reporters, that watch them closely, that look through the lies that keep them in check. And we need them to do that.
Yet for how long were the media on side with President Bush’s War on Terror?
The fact of Wikileaks is that it doesn’t write opinion pieces, it doesn’t type up these stories and send them out. All it simply does is take in the information and display them. It is up to the media and the people to decide what they want done with it.
It is not the governments who are in charge of us. We should be in charge of the governments.
Here's the video I mentioned above.
