Today's news that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested and denied bail in the U.K. comes as little surprise. Assange's website has been reportedly bombarded by numerous governments and enterprises around the world in attempt to strangle its life force, yet, according to news reports, these covert efforts have not yet succeeded in stopping the flow of hacked information.
Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow has tweeted that the "first serious infowar is now engaged, and the "field of battle is WikiLeaks."
It's a fascinating new frontier to discuss. Reading reports from a British media perspective over the past week gave me insights I wouldn't have thought about while digesting the WikiLeaks story stateside.
And as major, loyal allies of we Americans, the Brits are quite rightly miffed at the reported brush off they've received by American diplomats, thanks to WikiLeaks information.
The big question of course, is should freedom of speech and unprecedented levels of investigative reporting extend so far as to allow the likes of Assange to create a new world in which no one dealing with any issue of any national or international importance is able to speak frankly to another, for fear of the converation being far from in confidence.
We've all had those "off the records" tip offs and debates in business and private scenarios. As top British tv presenter and journalist Jeremy Clarkson, eloquently and sensibly writes in his Sunday Times column this week, what we really need in the US and over the pond in judging this particular situation of balancing international security with free speech, are national ministers and secretary's of good sense.
Clarkson writes of a domestic parallel in which he's overheared house guests having a dig at his hospitality skills from the supposed privacy of the spare room. It's human nature, after all. We bitch and moan and critique, but we wouldn't say the half of it if we thought that our friends and relatives and business associates were party to the entire nasty diatribe.
Considering the advancing power of the internet and the frightening level of skills of hackers, it's fair to say that anything stored on a computer these days is fair game for exposure.
We might not have the answers as to the right or wrongdoing of the WikiLeaks gang, but we'd be crazy to write anything too scathing in a private email these days.
Comments