Today I have found an article from the Washington Post, which argues that the case of the Guantanamo Bay cables is possibly one of the largest leaks in history. Michael. J. Narve (a former lieutenant commander in the U.S Navy) suggested that “though the series of document leaks made to WikiLeaks cumulatively appears to be one of the largest in history, their significance in terms of damage is less than, say, the leaks to Russia by convicted spy Robert Hanssen” (Washington Post, 2011). This proposes that WikiLeaks has not actually caused that much damage – yet, but has the potential to cause as much harm as the leaks to Russia.
The article suggests that ‘the tensions between the public’s right to know and the government’s duty to protect the nation’s security are as strong as ever’ (Washington Post, 2011). As a result the Government are said to be becoming more secretive in their discretions; “Honestly we don’t yet know what the full impact is” of the release of the cables. “But governments have told us that they’re going to share less information with us.” (Washington Post, 2011). This is obviously an effect of WikiLeaks, which poses the question; is media transparency helpful to the general public? Because, it now seems that due to these leaks the government are now becoming even more closed, which means it will be harder for websites such as WikiLeaks to expose confidential files.
No comments:
Post a Comment