Those of us who have grown used to having a computer in our pocket to search for any information we may want to know might forget that information costs something to obtain. Have it be the costs of having an internet connection, or the price of purchasing books, information is something that you must purchase access to. There have been many movements to make information more available to the public, through libraries and free online resources like Wikipedia. However not all information is available to you, even if you are willing to pay the costs.
Some information governments and corporations want to keep to themselves for political or economic reasons. There are some people out there who believe that this shouldn’t be allowed, that all information should be freely accessible. One group of such people is the website known as WikiLeaks. They are a collection of journalists who seek to find information that has been hidden away from the general public. As WikiLeaks explains on their website, “Publishing improves transparency, and this transparency creates a better society for all people. Better scrutiny leads to reduced corruption and stronger democracies in all society’s institutions, including government, corporations and other organisations.” Depending on your standpoint, such an idea might be harmful to you. It certainly is to the United States Military.
WikiLeaks posted a video from Iraq now known as the “Collateral Murder” video, which they received from an anonymous source inside the US Military. That source is now known to be Bradley Manning, who was arrested in May 2010. He has spent the last 3 years being held await a military trial. As The Nation reported, “For the first ten months of his detention, he was kept locked in solitary confinement, was denied social interaction, exercise, and sunlight, and at times forced to stay completely naked, treatment that the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, called cruel and inhuman.” The military is holding him on charges of aiding the enemy on top of releasing classified documents. WikiLeaks, being an international journalist group, seems to be safely out of reach for now. Court cases against them have failed to get them to remove their information.
While the treatment of Manning seems harsh, the backlash against the government when WikiLeaks released the information was equally as bad. Awareness groups now continuously push for the military to release the secrecy around what really is going on in our war efforts in the Middle East. It is a push for the release of information. While success of this particular movement seems low with the military’s lack of response, the freedom of all information is something that groups like WikiLeaks will continue to strive for.
I believe that in the digital age, where information is just a few keystrokes away from anyone with a computer, information can no longer be treated like physical property. Digital information is made to be copied and shared with everyone, it’s the nature of technology. If our society is to continue to so fully embrace technology and the internet, then governments, militaries, private companies and individuals should be prepared for the fact that information stored in a digital medium will eventually get out. You can either embrace the freedom or try to fight it off, but I believe that either way the information will eventually find a way into the public.
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