New laws required
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange may not have broken the law by publishing leaked diplomatic cables, Treasurer Wayne Swan has conceded.
Then change the law!
If you are reading this, thank a Teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier
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Yep – you could start by enacting legislation making it possible for Australian media to be prosecuted for publishing the leaks.
This would include, of course, The Oz, the Fairfax papers, and bloggers like Bolt and Blair.
Then you could set up an agency to vet all media to make sure that no publication of any information put the public interest or national security in jeopardy. It could be called the Office of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
Hang on – it’s been done before (13th March 1933). The country was Germany, and the bloke in charge of this agency was a certain Joseph Goebbels…..
The circumstances does’t exist where it’s OK to release confidential documents to the public. There are matters within government military and diplomatic circles that need to be kept confidential for the smooth running of societies.
That’s how the system works and to raise Goebbels in this discussion is very disingenuous.
You might think it’s OK but that makes you a fellow traveler with Pilger, the Greens, GetUp, The Democrat Underground, several hundred protesting anarchists and hippies here and abroad, The Socialist Worker and the Huffington Post all of whom are dedicated to denigrating and/or tearing down the society we have.
Me, I’m all for maintaining what we have while we advance and change as better ideas come along and I’ve yet to come across any better ideas from the socialists.
As for your comment on the media; once confidential documents are released then they are quite within their rights to comment and to point out the damage done by the hippie prick.
“Me, I’m all for maintaining what we have…”
I don’t believe what we have is good enough.
I hope and strive for a world where our political and corporate leaders tell us the truth. If that makes me naïve – call me naïve – I’m proud of it.
To quote Ted Kennedy in his eulogy to his brother on 8th June, 1968, –
“Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not.”
I hope I never become cynical enough to lose this naivety.
I’m with him
I don’t see what the fuss is all about.
Assange is a nobody being given hero status by the likes of Pilger and Tariq Ali. With friends like those he won’t last long.
If it wasn’t for a CD-ROM of stuff pinched by an un-gruntled US Army Private Soldier Assange would have nothing but his hatred of the USA.
Assange didn’t scoop the poop by discovering or ripping of the material himself, he was given it and all he and his dickwad mates are doing is posting them on a website.
The distributed servers he uses are not unique or particularly clever either.
All he’s done is ensure the portcullis of secrecy he claims he’s campaigning against will be slammed shut and government secrecy will be greater than ever.
Isn’t one of the cornerstones of modern liberalism free speech Kev?
“Democracy relies on making informed decisions. “Perfect” capitalist markets function on perfect information. Let transparency reign”
Eddie
You’re confused – free speech relates to citizens being able to criticize the government etc without fear or favour, not to releasing confidential communications from government,defence, diplomatic corps or, for that matter, commercial-in-confidence matters.
None of that is free and a lot of it costs lives and/or billions in expenditure.
Would you expect the Board that runs the institution where you work to release each and every uttering at Board Meetings to all staff down to toilet cleaner level?
Would you expect BHP, Myers, Woolworths or Rio Tinto to place on the public forum all their machinations as they try for a take-over or as they open up new markets or ore body research?
Would you expect Defence to announce all their secret plans to attack or defend prior to the act?
Of course not – you wouldn’t expect or demand any of the mentioned institutions to act so irresponsibly unless you hate western society/USA so much that it’s collapse would please you.
And that’s where Assange sits…nothing to do with free speech. In fact when someone leaked details about the crimes he was being charged with in Sweden the free flow of information he is so on about quickly morphed into something else;
Pot…kettle…goose…gander