After a week in solitary confinement Julian Assange has been freed on bail in London. His arrest follows the extraordinary publication of highly confidential international diplomatic briefs through Wikileaks.
Two important questions need to be asked here.
Firstly, who gains from the leaks? I think the reading public does. We can read the real discourse between public figures. It’s not pretty but at least we have better information with which we can make informed decisions. Here is a chance to side step the poor quality 3-day cycle of news and celebrity journalism and engage with the real issues that affect our lives.
Secondly, who loses from the leaks? I think the politicians and the military elite do. Suddenly we see how politicians manipulate issues like refugees to further an electoral advantage. Then there are the high-ranking military officials who think the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are unwinable. This is explosive stuff and rightly so! Political speeches have tried our patience. Who really believes that a retiring politician is looking forward to ‘spending time with their children’.
I belong to the loosely defined ‘freedom of information’ lobby. Individuals and groups who believe that access to information leads to a more informed, democratic and healthy society. It’s ironic that in this moment in time when there are so many news media networks, so few report on wealth distribution and on the mechanisms through which companies and banks make financial decisions and influence public policy. Look no further than the international Murdock press and Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi to observe undemocratic power exercised.
It is a familiar public relations strategy to cloud the virtue of anyone who attempts change the status quo. Remember Australian Andrew Wilkie who challenged the rhetoric of going to war in Iraq in 2003. Remember the UK scientist, David Kelly who ‘suicided’ after opposing the same war. Remember Australian nurse, Christine Cameron who blew the cover on medical malpractice in a Queensland hospital. All were accused at various stages of questionable virtue. [PR 101 - Throw enough dirt at someone and some of it will stick].
I am surprised that so-called military experts say ‘the lives of our boys in war are threatened’. Cynically, it seems like a way of silencing the debate and using our loyalty to troops to do so.
Suddenly Julian Assange has been accused of having consensual sex with two women without using condoms. I am cynical that two governments are so rigorous in pursuing him when so many violently and chronically abused women in these countries don’t receive anything like this response to their call for help. I share Naomi Wolf’s outrage from the perspective of victims of rape who have been overlooked in attempts to have their cases heard.