WikiLeaks needs an operational standard
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Welcome to the Wikileaks World [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn] |
"The United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of classified information." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said to reporters after the WikiLeaks released about 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables on Sunday.
It is a crime to deliberately leak diplomatic secrets of a country. The act may cause trouble or even conflicts between countries. However, the most important issue is defining a standard for secrets, i.e. which files can be defined as "confidential".
In my view, any file that records tyranny and cruelty cannot be "confidential"; and any file that includes facts of corruption and wrong doings of government mustn't be "classified". Instead of protecting the interests of certain countries, whether they are superpowers or poor nations, the standard of judging whether a file is "confidential" or not should be based on universally accepted norms and values. If a file violates humanity and universal values, it ought to be known to the public because public awareness may prevent any wrong doing from happening.
In this sense, leakage of files that uncovered information about casualties and sufferings of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan is not a crime against U.S, but a heroic act of humanity. WikiLeaks has unveiled some of the atrocities of war and shown that ordinary people are often the most direct victims.
But it is reasonable for scholars to worry whistleblowers may violate personal privacy or endanger the security of a country, especially developing countries vulnerable to internet attacks. The healthy development of whistleblower Websites is of great use in terms of internal affairs and international issues. However, if they were controlled by those harboring evil intentions and misused for political fighting domestically and globally, it would be a disaster.
All the problems relate to one issue—standard. The standard I mention above is merely a general outline and a set of operational mechanisms that may sift contents not suitable to be leaked, such as privacy and the real diplomatic secrets, ought to be forged. However, the operation of the Website now mainly relies on volunteers around the world, which displays spirit but causes inconsistency in terms of standard. I believe that's why some personal information of some American diplomats has been released. In addition, recent leakage of U.S. cables has given us an indication of the chaos of sorting materials inside WikiLeaks.
A lack of operational standard may become a critical issue for WikiLeaks, and cause the Website to lose its appeal, because people are not only curious but also rational.
The author is a visiting scholar in School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University.
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