Controversy has struck yet again, this time in the form of the WikiLeaks gagging order. A German activist named Daniel Domscheit has said ‘in imposing the draconian confidentiality agreement on its employees WikiLeaks was behaving too much like the governments and businesses it purports to expose’ (Guardian, 2011). The gagging order is not dissimilar from the type of contract government officials must sign in order to keep certain exchanges confidential. However, I must point out that the gagging order is predominantly there to safeguard the employees and people who submit documents to the WikiLeaks site. Domscheit also exclaimed that he felt ‘sorry... for all those new staffers that had no idea what they were getting into” – with reference to working for the WikiLeaks organisation. This connotes that people who were to begin working for WikiLeaks were about to take on more responsibility then they knew.
As mentioned in my previous blog, the gagging order has a 12 million pound penalty if anyone comments and/ or reveals any information about the order. The writer of the article suggests that ‘WikiLeaks needs to get out of the gagging game’ (Guardian, 2011), because silencing this ‘dissent is not just ironic, it’s dangerous’ (Guardian, 2011).
Personally, I believe that this gagging order is something needed by the organisation. Assange is running a company where he needs to make sure he can trust people. However, I can see that this order is making the company more and more like a government organisation, rubbishing WikiLeaks belief of media transparency. Perhaps, WikiLeaks ought to re-think their gagging order, so that the people who sign it are not pressured into it, but feel willing to sign.
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