Toward Open Government

[Joanne98]

Without whistleblowing, leaks, and investigative reporting, the world might not have known about My Lai, the Pentagon Papers, Abu Ghraib, the Afghanistan Convoy of Death, and the US-government and Canadian-government involvement in torture in the so-called War on Terror.

That an organization like Wikileaks is purportedly revealing confiential, secret, and not-so-confidential leaks is something that every supporter of an open society ought to support. It is often stated that knowledge is power, and despite John Dalberg-Acton’s caution,1 in the context of knowledge, power is considered a good thing. Power belongs to the people; therefore, knowledge belongs to the masses.

Nasty things often hide in the dark. Knowing this, many governments demand their citizens submit to intrusive measures, chirping that if you have nothing to hide, then you need not fear encroachments into their private sphere like telephone monitoring, body scans, customs checks, census questionnaires, etc. That Albert Einstein, John Lennon, and others were subject to FBI scrutiny is anathema in an open society. Yet, the self-same governments hide behind secrecy acts and disinformation.

Unsurprisingly, Wikileaks has been assailed by government officials for the release of certain documents.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/12/toward-an-open-society/

[yurbud]

1. our democracy is broken by corruption, disinformation, and public ignorance

and radical leaking is part of the solution.