Journalists defend Wikileaks

An international group of journalists is coming to the defense of
Wikileaks and its leading light, Julian Assange. True, we see no big
names among the signatories so far. But then, Wikileaks is a threat to
the Big Brother systems of many countries and so journalists who take
their paychecks from such systems generally know better than to sign
such a petition.

The following came from journalist Lucy Komisar:

This is a statement that members of GLOBAL-L@LISTS.REPORTER.ORG have
written and signed on the issue of recent attacks against Wikileaks
and its founder.

We are seeking other signatures before we distribute it publicly. If
you agree and wish to sign, please send me your name, ID and country.

Please pass this on to other journalists and writers organizations.We
are collecting the emails of signatories so that we can contact them
when necessary, but we will not make them public. We hope to finish
the name gathering in the coming week.

Lucy Komisar LK@lucykomisar.com

JOURNALISTS' STATEMENT ON ATTACKS ON WIKILEAKS

Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing organization Wikileaks,
is being angrily criticized and threatened for his part in huge leaks
of military documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (the 'War
Diaries'). He is being accused of irresponsibly releasing confidential
military information, of endangering lives of people named in the
leaked military reports and even of espionage. Some media
organizations have joined in this criticism.

We, journalists and journalist organizations from many countries,
express our support for Mr Assange and Wikileaks. We believe that Mr
Assange has made an outstanding contribution to transparency and
accountability on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, subjects where
transparency and accountability has been severely restricted by
government secrecy and media control. He is being attacked for
releasing information that should never have been withheld from the
public.

We believe Wikileaks had the right to post confidential military
documents because it was in the interest of the public to know what
was happening. The documents show evidence that the US Government has
misled the public about activities in Iraq and Afghanistan and that
war crimes may have been committed.

Has Wikileaks endangered lives? There was legitimate criticism of
Wikileaks for not vetting the Afghanistan documents fully enough, with
some names such as informers being released. Fortunately there is no
evidence that anyone has been injured or killed as a result. We note
that Wikileaks learned from that mistake and has been much more
careful with the Iraq documents. Overall, Wikileaks' factual reporting
of numerous undisputed abuses and crimes is of far greater
significance than the widely criticised mistakes over inadequate
redacting.

Mr Assange is being personally pressured because of his involvement in
the military leaks, including threats of espionage charges. Mr.
Assange is no more guilty of espionage than any journalist or any
whistleblower.  This is a terrible precedent and one that is contrary
to open government.

If it is espionage to publish documents provided by whistle blowers,
then every journalist will eventually be guilty of that crime. Mr
Assange deserves our support and encouragement in the face of the
attacks.

Since it was launched in 2006, Wikileaks has been an extraordinary
resource for journalists around the world, furthering transparency at
a time when governments are reducing it. Although it is not part of
the media, and does not purport to be, its mission of informing the
public and reducing unjustified secrecy complements and assists our
work. As grateful beneficiaries of Wikileaks and Mr Assange's work, we
stand in support of them at this time.

Signatories (in progress):

Agendia Aloysius; Freelance journalist (Cameroon/Sweden)
J. Cholo Brooks, CEO Global News Network, Inc. –Publisher of The Star
Newspaper (Liberia)
Thomas Buch-Andersen, journalist, Danish National Public Radio (DR-P1) (Denmark)
Stefan Candea, The Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism (Romania)
Henry D Gombya PhD Specialist: History, Politics and Culture of the
Africa Great Lakes Region
(United Kingdom )
Nicky Hager journalist, author of Secret Power: New Zealand’s
Role in the International Spy Network (New Zealand),
Mansoor Hassan, Northwest editor, Urdu Times  (UK)
Mark Lee Hunter, author, "Story-Based Inquiry: A Manual for
Investigative Reporters" (UNESCO 2009).
David Ibrahim, Multimedia journalist
Henrik Kaufholz  (Denmark)
Oleg Khomenok, SCOOP (network for investigative journalists in East
and Southeastern Europe) coordinator (Ukraine)
Lucy Komisar, investigative journalist, thekomisarscoop.com/ (USA)
Paul Lashmar, investigative journalist and lecturer, Brunel University, London
Anne Lea Landsted, Associate Professor, Centre for Journalism,
University of Southern Denmark (Denmark)
Sasa Lekovic, (Croatia)
Patrick Mayoyo (UK)
Gavin MacFadyen, Director, Centre for Investigative Journalism, City
University, London (UK)
Nils Mulvad, assistant professor, Danish School of Media and
Journalism and editor at Kaas & Mulvad (Denmark)
Jørgen Flindt Pedersen (Denmark)
Gloria Reyes International Journalism (Germany)
Kirsten Rulf, WDR German Public TV (Germany)
Jon Shafer  (USA)
Leo Sisti, writer, contributing reporter at "L'Espresso" and "Il Fatto
Quotidiano"(Italy)
Joy Summers Investigative Television Producer (South Africa)
Dina Yafasova, journalist, (Denmark)
Blaž Zgaga, free-lance journalist (Slovenia)