Recently in Media issues Category

We have criticised the WikiLeakS.org core activists for their abuse of the https://twitter.con/wikileaks Twitter feed before. They use it in broadcast mode, making allegations which cannot be backed up with any detail in a short 160 character tweet.

Twitter is clearly unsuitable for the accusations and counter-accusations between the Pentagon and WikiLeakS.org, about who did or did not contact whom over the Afghan War Diary messages.

Similarly the denials and media storm over the accusation and Arrest In Absentia over alleged rape in Sweden and the rapid about turn by the Swedish State Prosecutor was made worse by this "anonymous" twitter feed.

WikiLeakS.org have not shown any evidence that "the Pentagon" orchestrated the now dropped rape allegation, a claim which is specifically denied by the Swedish Prosecution Authority.

The WikiLeakS.org activists, who increasingly resemble a dodgy religious cult, have plenty of other enemies, not associated with the US Military, who could have been behind such allegations, or it could have simply a "normal" media celebrity / tabloid press "story" - where is the evidence that is must have been organised, only the US Military ? Judging from some of the malicious emails which we have received through the incompetence of some of the people who hate WikiLeakS.org, there are plenty of individuals who would be prepared to smear Julian Assange, without any prompting from any organization.

However that has not stopped the Twitter feed from being used to make that unfounded "Pentagon smear" allegation and also to to link it to the previously leaked document which the WikiLeakS.org team have prefaced with their own conspiracy theory propaganda interpretation

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/21822519941

Reminder: US intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeakS as far back as 2008 http://bit.ly Retweeted by 100+ people

Sun Aug 22 11:09:17 +0000 2010

U.S. Intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks, 18 Mar 2008

http://file.wikileaks.org/file/us-intel-wikileaks.pdf

If you actually bother to read that document, it simply points out the obvious, that

(U//FOUO) Web sites such as Wikileaks.org use trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers. The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the Wikileaks.org Web site.

which is something which also applies equally to the Private Banking industry etc. as it does to the US Military.

This old intelligence risk analysis document does not provide evidence of an actual US military plan to "destroy Wikileaks" and it certainly makes no mention at all of any "dirty tricks" as a viable option to contain the problems which Wikileaks poses to the US Military.

It is stupid of the WikiLeakS.org people to spin such conspiracy theories via their "official" Twitter feed, as doing so loses them journalistic credibility.

Twitter could be used to point people to Digitally Signed Press Releases or web site published statements such as that on the misnamed "Official WikilLeakS,org blog" http://blog.wikileaks.org/ (which does not permit even moderated comments and so is not really a blog), which contains just 3 entries in the July / August 2010 time period, when there have been about 300 tweets.

The end result is that WIkiLeakS.org and / or Julian Assange give the impression of being secretive, arrogant, control freaks, every bit as bad as the government bureaucrats, politicians and media spin doctors who they claim to be trying to expose.

Could this alleged Denial of Service attack through a forged complaint have been prevented if WikiLeakS.org bothered to publish a PGP Public Key on their website and elsewhere and used it to Digitally Sign their Press Releases and official correspondence ?

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/12614364183

Facebook says it will restore WikiLeaks fan page. Says someone posing as us asked for it to be deleted.

Thu Apr 22 02:35:32 +0000 2010

and

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/12593625175

Facebook pulls WikiLeaks fan page for being "inauthentic", but we never complained about it. http://bit.ly/aywGHU

Wed Apr 21 19:28:39 +0000 2010

http://bit.ly/aywGHU translates to http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/wikileaks-fan-page-pulled-down-being-inauthentic-says-facebook

Just what sort of media, whistleblower source protection, anti-libel tourism etc. legislation , are Julian Assange , Daniel Schmitt and the other WikiLeakS,org activists actually helping to draft in Iceland ?

Chris Vallance from the BBC has an article and video interview with some of those involved: Wikileaks and Iceland MPs propose 'journalism haven'

Coupled with Iceland's attractions for companies looking for cheap, non-carbon cycle electricity and cooling for their internet server farms, such legal protection could be very attractive to "cloud computing" and publishing services.

Will WikiLeakS.org get some server space and bandwidth in Iceland ?

Perhaps they should firstly pay US$ 250 for the wiikileaks.is Icelandic domain name registration (limited to Icelandic citizens) ?

Will the Icelanders manage to shame the increasingly repressive and hypocritical European and North American Governments into sorting out their own equivalent laws, which also badly need reform in the internet age ?

Here are some more details of what is being proposed:, but not an actual detailed legal Bill:

Icelandic Modern Media Initiative - Proposal

WikiLeakS.org has applied for a grant from the Knight Foundation a charitable foundation financed from the former Knight-Ridder US newspaper conglomerate.

Do not confuse this with the recently revived 1980's fictional Knight Rider TV series featuring a supposedly artificially intelligent car, which starred David Hasselhoff.

Knight News Challenge funding application: WikiLeaks full-scale localization and community expansion project

Project Title:
WikiLeaks full-scale localization and community expansion project

Requested amount from Knight News Challenge:
532000

Expected amount of time to complete project:
2

Total cost of project including all sources of funding:
600000

Describe your project:
Wikileaks enables whistleblowers and censored journalists to safely reveal primary-source material to the world. We have sourced thousands of stories for newspapers all over the world and helped expose both corporate and government corruption on a global scale (see attached). As a result of our efforts, we have won numerous awards, including The Economist Magazine New Media Award in 2008 and Amnesty International's Media Award in 2009. We seek funding from the Knight News Challenge to build the mechanisms and customizations needed to transform our successful, self-funded pilot into a powerful voice for local reform. First, we will provide links to local newspapers that publish stories based on our documents. Connecting related stories in different media, users will be able to trace a breaking story from first revelation to final commentary.

How will this be better or more informative than, say a Google News search or NewsNow.co.uk or other news aggregators?

Getting Local and Mainstream media to actually acknowledge and publish the URL links to the web based sources of their stories, would in itself be a massive change in their culture and business ethics.

Next, we will create a full-fledged localized submission system. Newspapers will be able to add a code snippet to their site to allow users to upload documents to Wikileaks.

What exactly is the commercial advantage to a Local Newspaper in doing this ?

Surely this will inevitably narrow down the lost of potential whistleblowers, and will lead to subpoenas and seizures of Local Newspaper organisation website's web server logfiles ?

If the "collateral damage" cases involving, say, Indymedia UK, are anything to go by, then the Local Newspaper risks having their entire web servers being seized, thereby disrupting or denying service to their advertising revenues, or their technical staff being arrested and having their homes searched by ignorant law enforcement bureaucrats, who are ineptly hunting down the people behind entirely unrelated malicious threats. Under more repressive regimes than than United Kingdom, the risks of state inflicted violence are much greater.

Similarly the Local Newspaper's Internet Service Providers and web hosting companies will be subjected to the same sort of legalistic threats and by dishonest or inept Streisand Effect ignorant shyster media lawyers, claiming defamation or copyright infringement and secret court injunctions etc., which wikileaks ignore, but which they may not be able to for financial or legal reasons.

By uploading to Wikileaks through their local newspaper, both the whistleblower and the journalist will optionally be able to further communicate anonymously to ensure that the story receives full coverage and maximum depth.

Note that this two way anonymous communication facility between the whistleblower and the journalist does not exist in the current WikiLeakS.org system.

This is especially important for smaller publications and publications in press hostile environments that do not have the legal, financial or editorial resources of larger publications and do not have a way to anonymize their Internet traffic. We have a list of strong partners who are eager to be beta testers of this system. We will also translate our templates into six major world languages, localize our legal information, and increase server infrastructure around the world to ensure access in remote locales.

How will your project improve the way news and information are delivered to geographic communities?

Wikileaks has an established record for safe transmission and publication of high-impact source material. By furthering the development of local interfaces and enhancing local media interaction, our project will substantially improve investigative journalism in many communities around the world. Similarly, localization will make it easier for readers to track the development of investigative stories and gain meaningful, actionable information out of raw data. In addition, by enhancing the connection between community news outlets and their readers, it will build bonds that will improve local media access beyond stories sourced through Wikileaks.

How is your idea innovative? (new or different from what already exists)
Wikileaks provides unprecedented safety, security, and privacy for sensitive source materials and censored journalism. This is of particular value to local newspapers and independent journalists, who lack the resources to defend their sources from legal and sometimes physical attack. Before Wikileaks, it was very difficult to forward leaked documents to investigative journalists, and nearly impossible to place them in full view of the whole world.

It is utterly false to claim that before Wikileaks, " it was very difficult to forward leaked documents to investigative journalists"

Similarly the claim that before Wikileaks it was "nearly impossible to place them in full view of the whole world." is also rubbish.

Language localization will extend this innovation by bringing it to a larger, non-English-speaking audience around the world. A sophisticated enhancement for the interaction between sources and journalists, readers and newspapers, will provide innovative ways for communities to report on news.

What experience do you or your organization have to successfully develop this project?
WikiLeaks is an exceptionally successful pilot that allows sources to leak confidential information while protecting their identity. We are asking Knight for first foundation funding in order to grow from a self-funded pilot to a full media operation. Because we are a non-profit organisation, we hope that the successes of our model will be used and adapted by other media organisations. Wikileaks was founded by a team of internationally recognized technologists, legal experts, and accredited journalists. Our current staff includes well-known computer scientists and journalists, and our advisory board includes internationally noted political and technical figures. We work closely with the EFF, the ACLU, the SoPJ, and other leading 1st amendment organizations. Our pilot uses independent mechanisms to ensure that our sources are well protected.

Wikileaks.org do not take the quite same care with the anonymity of comment authors or of people who download the alleged whistleblower documents.

We maintain our servers at undisclosed locations, pass communication through protective jurisdictions, keep no traffic logs, and use military-grade encryption to protect sources and other confidential information.

The trustees of the Knight Foundation should insist on seeing some actual evidence to back up this, at least to the level of detail of an overall high level Security and Anonymity Architecture document, something which Wikileaks have failed to publish so far.

"our servers at undisclosed locations" - this is a misleading claim.There is a significant Single Point of Failure at the IP address 88.80.28.193 hosted at PRQ Internet in Stockholm, Sweden, to which all the different wikileaks domain names resolve.

We have strong bonds with like-minded organizations such as Reporters Without Borders as well as many renowned newspapers, which can help us implement our program in local areas, provide credibility as we enter new geographic communities, and share information about local corruption, suppression of stories, and journalist harassment. In our nearly three years of operation, every source has been protected, and every attempt at censorship of our material has been defeated.

Related Proposal:
None

The Knight News Challenge has funded some worthwhile projects in the past, including some involving well respected people like Sir Tim Berners-Lee or Ethan Zuckerman, so there is fair chance that they might partly fund this proposed expansion of Wikileaks.org project.

WikiLeakS.org media auction

| | Comments (2)

The controversial whistleblower website WikiLeakS.org seems to be experimenting with a new way of raising money, by trying to auction off "exclusive" leaked material to

The WikiLeakS.org Press release:

From: Wikileaks Press Office

Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:38:47 +0100

Inside Venezuela - over 8, 000 diplomatic emails 2005-2008

Wikileaks has prepared for publication over 8,000 internal and
external emails to and from a senior Venzuelan diplomat and former
speech writer for Hugo Chavez. The emails are dated 2005 to July
2008, and include several thousand attachments. The preparation
includes a "one touch" translation system to over a dozen different
languages.

The material provides a unqiue insight into the Bolivarian revolution,
President Chavez's manamgement of his inner circle, and affairs
ranging from Cuban and Venezuelan contacts, sentiments about CIA
activites in Venezuela, Columbian incursions, the visit of the
Pope and Venezuelan views on many other countries and events.

Organizations wishing to bid for exclusivity (proceeds to our source
defense fund) and embargoed access contact usa@wikileaks.org for
additional information.

This is certainly a departure from their previous media management and publicity efforts, and raises a few ethical questions, some of which are noted in Ryan Singel's article in Wired magazine - Latest Wikileaks Prize for Sale to the Highest Bidder - Update

Some Obvious Ethical and Practical Questions:

  1. How much money is this story / source material on offer worth, in terms of cold hard cash ?

  2. Will WikiLeakS.org pay any money to people who provide them saleable "media exclusive" leaks ?

  3. If not, then why not ?

  4. If so, how will they still protect the anonymity of their sources, given that financial transactions leave an audit trail, or involve face to face meetings ?

  5. Will WikiLeakS.org employ secret agent style dead letter drops or cut outs to pay informants ?

  6. Will WikiLeakS.org modify their submission forms to include a "I do not want this information to be sold for money" caveat by the whistleblower ?

  7. Will they be bound by such a declaration by a whistleblower ?

  8. Many of the better quality mainstream media organisations do not pay for stories, as a matter of policy . Ryan Singel's article mentions The Washington Post, and Steve Aftergood quoted in the same article cites the New York Times. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is another such news organisation which does not pay for stories. Will such organisations refuse to touch a "story" where only tabloid sensationalist media are in the financial bidding ?

  9. Why should "exclusive access" for a period of time, be restricted to private sector media organisations with money ?

  10. How long should any such exclusive access embargo period last for ?

  11. Would WikiLeakS.org delay publication of a "leak", if, say, a state controlled media organisation paid them to do so ?

  12. Would WikiLeakS.org delay publication of a "leak", if, say, a private sector media organisation, owned by a billionaire with other commercial interests and government contacts e.g. the former Australian now US citizen Rupert Murdoch, or the Uzbek / Russian Alisher Usmanov, paid them to do so ?

  13. Will WikiLeakS.org be open and transparent about their criteria for accepting or rejecting media bids for such exclusive story leaked source material ?

  14. Will just the fact of announcing a Media Auction, succeed in raising mainstream media interest in the story, regardless of how little money actually ever changes hands ?

The scenario involving the keeping the details of the leaked information secret, for a time period, even if it is going to be published eventually, is one which we have noted previously, in our criticism of the lack of a current, valid PGP Public Encryption Key to protect whistleblower leaked material sent via the postal mail route.

See Discussion on the lack of a current WikiLeakS.org PGP public encryption key

Following the Judge's ruling last week, the case in the California Northern District Federal Court against WikiLeakS.org has now been dropped.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation have a copy of the Plaintiff's Notice of Dismissal (.pdf 4 pages) whereby William J. Briggs II, a junior lawyer from Lavely & Singer files a Voluntary Motion of Dismissal without prejudice on behalf of the Swiss bank Bank Julius Baer and their Cayman Islands tax haven subsidiary Julius Baer Bank Trust Co. Ltd in their ill advised public relations disaster against Wikileaks.org, their domain name registrar Dynadot LLC, and the 10 unnamed John Does.

TO ALL PARTIES AND THEIR COUNSEL OF RECORD:

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that Plaintiffs BANK JULIUS BAER & CO. LTD and JULIUS BAER BANK AND TRUST CO. LTD (“Plaintiffs”) hereby
voluntarily dismisses, without prejudice, the above captioned action in its entirety, whereby Plaintiffs may, at their option, later pursue their claims, including in an alternate court, jurisdiction or venue.

See the rest of the EFF's copies of the Court documents: Bank Julius Baer& co. v Wikileaks

By dropping the case, after the strong hints from the Judge to think again, now that the "cat is out of the bag" in regard to the alleged documents which have been published via WikiLeakS.org, the remaining Motions to Intervene by various media and civil liberties organisations and individuals will not now be heard, .

Lavely & Singer, based in Century City, near Hollywood, claim to be "one of the world's premiere talent-side entertainment litigation firms", which may well be true.
However, their legalistic bullying tactics and failure to understand, or deliberate misrepresentation of the internet's technical infrastructure, has rebounded on their clients Bank Julius Bär.

Rightly or wrongly now, for many people, and for search engine queries into the future, Bank Julius Baer is associated with with illegal tax evasion and money laundering.

"Bad publicity" might be better than "no publicity" for Hollywood media celebrity wannabes, but that should be an anathema for a Swiss Bank whose business model is supposedly to provide confidential, trust based private banking and investment "wealth management" services for the very rich.

Plaintiffs may, at their option, later pursue their claims, including in an alternate court, jurisdiction or venue.

Surely the Gnomes of Zürich cannot be so stupid as to commit commercial suicide, by continuing to employ "media celebrity attack dog" lawyers ?

This case also highlights some more Questions about the WikiLeakS.org project:

The following 12 media organisations have filed a joint Amici Curiae ("friends of the Court") brief in support of WikiLeakS.org against the claims of Bank Julius Baer and their lawyers Lavely & Singer.

  1. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
  2. The American Society of Newspaper Editors
  3. The Associated Press - (AP) world wide news agency, based in New York
  4. Citizen Media Law Project
  5. The E.W. Scripps Company - newspapers, TV, cable TV etc.
  6. Gannet Co. Inc - the largest publisher of newspapers in the USA, including USA Today
  7. The Hearst Corporation - media conglomerate which publishes the San Francisco Chronicle
  8. The Los Angeles Times
  9. National Newspaper Association
  10. Newspaper Association of America
  11. The Radio-Television News Directors Association
  12. The Society of Professional Journalists

See Brief of Amici Curiae (Media Coalition) (02-26-2008) (.pdf 17 pages)

These two groups have also filed a brief: Public Citizen - founded by Ralph Nader, together with the California First Amendment Coalition

See Public Citizen / CFAC brief (.pdf 13 pages)

These organisations have also filed their own Motion to Intervene as well: The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), and an individual US based WikiLeakS.org user.

See Motion to Intervene and Supporting Memorandum (.pdf 15 pages)

Did the Hollywood media celebrity lawyers Lavely & Singer warn their clients Bank Julius Baer that their meddling with US First Amendment rights would result in so much expert legal opposition ?


The Los Angeles Times, seems to be first with the news that at last, there now seems to be some legal opposition , to the California Northern District Federal Court orders against WikiLeakS.org, on behalf of Bank Julius Baer:

Judge is asked to rescind shutdown of Web site

Media and public interest organizations tell the jurist that his order violates constitutional provisions against prior restraint of free speech.

By Henry Weinstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
4:41 PM PST, February 26, 2008

A coalition of media and public interest organizations went to federal court in San Francisco today to urge a judge to reconsider shutting down a muckraking Web site that publishes business and government documents leaked from around the world.

Lawyers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and several news organizations told U.S. District Jeffrey White that two orders he issued last week to take wikileaks.org off the Internet were a prior restraint on free speech that violated the First Amendment.

"The First Amendment prohibits prior restraints in nearly every circumstance, even where national security may be at risk and even when the source unlawfully obtained the documents," the documents, filed on behalf of 12 media organizations, including The Times, Associated Press , Gannett, Hearst, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Society of Professional Journalists, said.

This must surely be rather more heavyweight legal opposition than Bank Julius Baer and their lawyers Lavely & Singer, were expecting.

[...]

Wikileaks.org urges people to post leaked documents in an effort to discourage "unethical behavior" by corporations and government agencies. Matt Zimmerman, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed separate papers asking White to reverse his ruling, said the case posed a key test of free speech on the Internet.

henry.weinstein@latimes.com

Hopefully the Judge will be able to rule in favour of WikiLeakS.org and to uphold the well established legal prohibitions against "prior restraint" under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

You can read one of the brief, by the Public Citizen and the California First Amendment Coalition:

Press release: Federal Court Should Not Have Shut Down Wikileaks.org, a Web Site for Whistleblowers

Public Citizen and California First Amendment Coalition brief (.pdf 13 pages)

This argues strongly that

  • the Federal Court does not even have jurisdiction in a case involving Swiss individual and corporate citizens, involving only Switzerland and the Cayman Islands

  • . that both the Domain Name Registrar Dynadot and WikiLeakS.org are "interactive computer services"and are therefore immune from responsibility for the publications of their customers, or users, under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

  • WikiLeakS.org is not a business trying to gain commercial advantage, but a non-commercial organisation., so the claims about "business names"do not apply

  • Powerful legal precedents forbidding Prior Restraint of publications.


  • The well respected USA Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism's bi-monthly Columbia Journalism Review asks

    Will Wikileaks Work?
    By Dan Goldberg

    Perhaps it’s inevitable that an operation promising the world’s whistleblowers an anonymous venue to blow their whistles would be shrouded in mystery. Though it has yet to launch—a firm e.t.a. is hard to come by—Wikileaks (www.wikileaks.org) has already generated plenty of buzz, with articles in Time and The Washington Post, among others, but is answering few of even the most basic questions about who is behind it and how it will accomplish what it promises.

    [...]

    As advertised, Wikileaks will allow anyone to post documents—the Web site talks of “principled leaking”—that purport to shed light on malfeasance, public or private, and remain safely anonymous. In theory, it’s an appealing idea, especially in an era of growing hostility toward leakers and the journalists who would give them a voice. Dig a little deeper, however, and a number of concerns arise.

    According to its Web site, Wikileaks was founded by “Chinese dissidents, mathematicians and startup company technologists” from around the world who hope that “greater transparency will lead to better, more responsible government.” Attempts to find out who those people are or how they are connected proved difficult.

    [...]

    The contact number on Wikileaks.org—which consistently goes straight to voicemail—has a D.C. area code and is a Verizon cell phone number registered in Adelphi, Maryland. Intellus.com, a Web tracking service, connected the number to a “Va Reston.”

    So how ethical is it for a journalist to use such a service ?

    How accurate is it anyway ?

    Why do WikiLeaks not use an unregistered pre-paid mobile phone ?



    Twenty miles down the road from Adelphi is Reston, Virginia, home to iDefense labs, whose Web site says it is “a comprehensive provider of security intelligence to governments.” It’s probably all just a coincidence, but for a site that champions transparency, well, you see the problem.

    Twenty miles down the road ?

    Adelphi, Maryland is just to the North of Washington and Reston, Virginia is just to the West.

    Would that then be the Washington "Beltway", off which the vast majority of the US Federal Government, Military, Defence Industry and Political Lobbyists and Consultants etc. have their offices ?

    Verizon Wireless and other Verizon Communications companies have several business locations in Reston, Virginia, including mobile cell phone and internet infrastructure etc.

    iDefense is owned by VeriSign, who bought it for its internet and computer vulnerability news and intelligence services.

    The Times has an article which mentions wikileaks in connection with techniques which terrorists or their sympathisers might use to distribute kidnap/torture/murder videos online.

    This is somewhat ironic, given that the article is prompted by leaks and briefings from anonymous "security sources", in the aftermath of the arrest of 9 people in the Birmingham area, under the Terrorism Act 2000.

    None of these people have yet been charged with anything, yet there are detailed allegations and hysterical media speculation about an alleged plot to kidnap, torture and murder a serving Islamic British soldier, and to post videos of this on the internet.

    Parts of these sort of atrocity videos are ghoulishly broadcast or printed by the image hungry mainstream media, giving the terrorists the oxygen of publicity which they seek.

    Times Online January 31, 2007

    Kidnap videos and how extremists post them online
    Jonathan Richards

    [...]
    An underground organisation called Wikileaks is also developing a protocol which would enable employees in oppressive regimes to post incriminating documents online without fear of being traced.

    A separate question is whether the site on which a post has been made can be traced and compelled to disclose details.

    Sites hosted in Britain are subject to British law, but if a site is hosted on an ISP in another country, the ability of police to compel the ISP to reveal details of the site’s users will depend on the laws of that country.


    About this blog

    This blog here at WikiLeak.org (no "S") discusses the ethical and technical issues raised by the WikiLeakS.org project, which is trying to be a resource for whistleblower leaks, by providing "untraceable mass document leaking and analysis".

    These are bold and controversial aims and claims, with both pros and cons, especially for something which crosses international boundaries and legal jurisdictions.

    This blog is not part of the WikiLeakS.org project, and there really are no copies of leaked documents or files being mirrored here.

    Email Contact

    Please feel free to email us your views about this website or news about the issues it tries to comment on:

    email: blog@WikiLeak[dot]org

    Before you send an email to this address, remember that this blog is independent of the WikiLeakS.org project.

    If you have confidential information that you want to share with us, please make use of our PGP public encryption key or an email account based overseas e.g. Hushmail

    LeakDirectory.org

    Now that the WikiLeakS.org project is defunct, so far as new whistleblower are concerned, what are the alternatives ?

    The LeakDirectory.org wiki page lists links and anonymity analyses of some of the many post-wikileaks projects.

    There are also links to better funded "official" whistlblowing crime or national security reporting tip off websites or mainstream media websites. These should, in theory, be even better at protecting the anonymity and security of their informants, than wikileaks, but that is not always so.

    New whistleblower website operators or new potential whistleblowers should carefully evaluate the best techniques (or common mistakes) from around the world and make their personal risk assessments accordingly.

    Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers and Political Dissidents

    The WikiLeakS.org Submissions web page provides some methods for sending them leaked documents, with varying degrees of anonymity and security. Anybody planning to do this for real, should also read some of the other guides and advice to political activists and dissidents:

    Please take the appropriate precautions if you are planning to blow the whistle on shadowy and powerful people in Government or commerce, and their dubious policies. The mainstream media and bloggers also need to take simple precautions to help preserve the anonymity of their sources e.g. see Spy Blog's Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers - or use this easier to remember link: http://ht4w.co.uk

    BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging

    Digital Security & Privacy for Human Rights Defenders manual, by Irish NGO Frontline Defenders.

    Everyone’s Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship for Citizens Worldwide (.pdf - 31 pages), by the Citizenlab at the University of Toronto.

    Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents - March 2008 version - (2.2 Mb - 80 pages .pdf) by Reporters Without Borders

    Reporters Guide to Covering the Beijing Olympics by Human Rights Watch.

    A Practical Security Handbook for Activists and Campaigns (v 2.6) (.doc - 62 pages), by experienced UK direct action political activists

    Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress & Tor - useful step by step guide with software configuration screenshots by Ethan Zuckerman at Global Voices Advocacy. (updated March 10th 2009 with the latest Tor / Vidalia bundle details)

    WikiLeakS Links

    The WikiLeakS.org Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

    WikiLeakS Twitter feeds

    The WikiLeakS.org website does not stay online all of the time, especially when there is a surge of traffic caused by mainstream media coverage of a particularly newsworthy leak.

    Recently, they have been using their new Twitter feeds, to selectively publicise leaked documents to the media, and also to report on the status of routing or traffic congestion problems affecting the main website in Stockholm, Sweden.

    N.B.the words "security" or "anonymity" and "Twitter" are mutually exclusive:

    WikiLeakS.org Twitter feed via SSL encrypted session: https://twitter.com/wikileaks

    WikiLeakS.org unencrypted Twitter feed http://twitter.com/wikileaks

    Internet Censorship

    OpenNet Initiative - researches and measures the extent of actual state level censorship of the internet. Features a blocked web URL checker and censorship map.

    Temporary Autonomous Zone

    Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ) by Hakim Bey (Peter Lambourn Wilson)

    Cyberpunk author William Gibson

    Campaign Button Links

    Watching Them, Watching Us, UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign
    UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign

    NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card
    NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card and National Identity Register centralised database.

    Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.
    Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.

    FreeFarid_150.jpg
    FreeFarid.com - Kafkaesque extradition of Farid Hilali under the European Arrest Warrant to Spain

    Peaceful resistance to the curtailment of our rights to Free Assembly and Free Speech in the SOCPA Designated Area around Parliament Square and beyond

    Parliament Protest blog - resistance to the Designated Area restricting peaceful demonstrations or lobbying in the vicinity of Parliament.

    Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans
    Data Retention is No Solution Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans.

    Save Parliament: Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)
    Save Parliament - Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)

    Open_Rights_Group.png
    Open Rights Group

    The Big Opt Out Campaign - opt out of having your NHS Care Record medical records and personal details stored insecurely on a massive national centralised database.

    Tor - the onion routing network
    Tor - the onion routing network - "Tor aims to defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Communications are bounced around a distributed network of servers called onion routers, protecting you from websites that build profiles of your interests, local eavesdroppers that read your data or learn what sites you visit, and even the onion routers themselves."

    Tor - the onion routing network
    Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor - useful Guide published by Global Voices Advocacy with step by step software configuration screenshots (updated March 10th 2009).

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    Amnesty International's irrepressible.info campaign

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    BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging

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    NGO in a box - Security Edition privacy and security software tools

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    Home Office Watch blog, "a single repository of all the shambolic errors and mistakes made by the British Home Office compiled from Parliamentary Questions, news reports, and tip-offs by the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team."

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    Reporters Without Borders - Reporters Sans Frontières - campaign for journalists 'and bloggers' freedom in repressive countries and war zones.

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    Committee to Protect Bloggers - "devoted to the protection of bloggers worldwide with a focus on highlighting the plight of bloggers threatened and imprisoned by their government."

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    Wikileaks.org - the controversial "uncensorable, anonymous whistleblowing" website based currently in Sweden.

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