Wikileaks is a very morally and ethically “grey” area. On one hand, people may deserve to know the secrets of the world they live in. On the other hand, it assumes that privacy should only be enjoyed by the little people – i.e. People that have no secrets of interest. It has been said that Julian Assange is acting on the belief that “everyone should have access to everything” (Khatchadourian, R 2010 pp07) but I think that this is going a bit too far. Does the general public have the right to see what happened during the Apache helicopter shooting? (Khatchadourian, R 2010 pp07) – Probably. Should Sarah Palin have the content of her e-mail account made available for everyone to see? (Tabi 2010) – I don’t think so. It could come down to personal vs. organisational privacy. Big corporations usually have the juiciest secrets but aren’t they entitled to privacy as well? Does it come down to who the person is and their position in life? Should Political figures and celebrities accept that their privacy is no more? One could argue that leaking information about the Watergate scandal as well as the “Pentagon Papers” (Tabi 2010) helps put together the missing pieces of history. One could also argue that these secrets were kept just that for the purpose of maintaining social harmony. I believe (for the most part) that a lot of the information that was kept from the public was done so to protect the people at the top. Whatever your thoughts, you have to agree that Wikileaks definitely puts a strain on privacy and equality.
References
Khatchadourian, R. 2010 'No Secrets: Julian Assange's mission for total transparency' The New Yorker, June 7, accessed on: 29/09/2011, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/07/100607fa_fact_khatchadourian
Tabi 2010 ‘The Top 10 Leaks of WikiLeaks’, The Wandrons, December 5, accessed on 29/09/2011, http://thewondrous.com/the-top-10-leaks-of-wikileaks/
Image sourced from: www.endiscomingblog.com
You made a real good point there. It is true that often information is kept private for a reason: to maintain social harmony and safety. I think there are occasions when the public has the right to know certain information, but maybe other times when either for personal reasons or public safety, secrets are worth being kept secret. The difficulty in this age of technological revolution, is who gets to decide what information is kept private and what is allowed to go public with in the constraints of the law.
ReplyDeleteWhere do we draw the line? Who deserves privacy and who doesn't? It is an incredibly contentious issue. I feel as if every human being deserves the right to their personal privacy, whether they are a school teacher or a member of parliament. However, I do feel as if governments, who are supposed to serve their citizens, should be forced to act with a high degree of transparency and accountability.
ReplyDeleteI agree that information may have been kept quiet to protect us. I know there are two sides to this argument but your right its hard to draw the line. I think the picture says a thousand words, after all information wants to be free ;)
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