It's been a long time between drinks on my blogs - I have been doing some extra study over the past few months which has been keeping me a little busy.
But there has been a lot going on - I think one of the most exciting developments is the Wikileaks movement and the light it is shining on how various international deals, actions and agreements are governed.
The aggressive, arguably irrational rhetoric by many US commentators on the recent Cablegate releases is remarkable in it's anger, suggesting that the work that Wikileaks is doing as akin to terrorism, putting innocent lives at risk by publishing classified information, is in fact a treasonous offence and the perpetrators should be executed.
To compare to something in history, the work that Wikileaks is doing is no different to the groundbreaking journalism of the Washington Post in uncovering the true depths of the Watergate scandal that resulted in President Nixon's resignation in 1974.
The Post, with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, investigated the arrest of 5 men that broke into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington in June 1972. It turned out that these men were in fact bugging the DNC and working for President Nixon, and had been undertaking similar covert operations work for the President for some time before that. Their pursuit of the story is now heralded as a watershed moment in investigative journalism, demonstrating that even the highest power is not, and should not, be immune from scrutiny.
Given what we know about Watergate, to suggest that Woodward and Bernstein were committing treason and should be executed is ridiculous. But like Wikileaks, they used whistleblowers (aka Deep Throat, later revealed as former FBI deputy director Mark Felt) who leaked classified information to the Washington Post. Like Cablegate, the information leaked was classified, provided details on operations of intelligence agencies and was very embarrassing for the government. But the leaking of this information did not put innocent lives at risk nor was it terrorism, and quite rightly hasn't been recorded that way in history. It instead shone light on reprehensible activity in the highest office in the US that the American people would not have been aware of had it not been for the courage of both the whistleblowers and the Washington Post.
Unfortunately, we now live in a time where there is no room for a Woodward or Bernstein. Based on the assault against Wikileaks and Julian Assange, had Watergate happened today, Woodward and Bernstein would probably have been indicted or subpoenaed to a US grand jury, ordered to name their sources, and potentially put in jail. And that anger has been consistent across the globe, with our own Prime Minister joining in the chorus calling the release of the Cablegate information "illegal" (although no basis has actually been put forward for that claim).
So what has changed from 1974? Why are journalists less likely to shine a light in to dark corners of government lest they fear persecution? The truth is, they always had fear of persecution. But more than ever, journalists are now “embedded” to the government's own interpretation of events and asking difficult questions about foreign policy, intelligence or defence is often considered "unpatriotic" (John Pilger quite rightly describes the many modern journalists as "spokesmen for the spokesmen"). It would seem that since the 1970's (at least), investigative journalism has taken a backwards step - many journalists are doing a disservice to the public by failing to ensure that all sides of the story, not just the "government line", are investigated and freely available to all.
Given the current state of journalism, Wikileaks is one of our last hopes of ensuring we get what we deserve in a democratic society - transparent, balanced, unfettered information from which we can make a decision about the best way to govern our society.
As Thomas Jefferson, America’s 3rd president is reported to have said, "information is the currency of democracy".
Visit current news on the Cablegate releases at Aljazeera’s dedicated website area.
