Wikileaks in the Philippine Context

The Leakage

Communicating with the rest of the world has never been this easy. In its 20th year of existence, the internet has become a venue for individuals from different parts of the globe to speak out their minds and share information with each other. It also goes beyond the usual self-centered posts of many internet users. There has been a growing conscience to participate in the relay of information and discussion of pressing issues that surround our society. Through this, internet users take part in nation building.

This can be seen in the documentary, Virtual Revolution, which higlighted the development of the internet and featured several powerful websites throughout history. What grabbed my attention was the site called Wikileaks for it is investigative journalism with no holds barred. The site hosts remarkable documents which reveal anomalies in the governments of various countries. The Wikileaks community pledges to protect its contributors from getting their identity discovered.

The Wikileaks website follows the same principle of the internet where no individual or group has the monopoly of power over as it multi-jurisdictional in nature. The people at Wikileaks feel

that it is their duty to be of service to the public.

"We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies." I have to agree because only such government can lead the people to the right direction. If it does otherwise, the people have the power to

complain and redress their grievances. Wikileaks have become such platform to hear the truth from the people who investigate and examine the truth in the governments around the globe.

With all these in mind, I'll leave you with a quote that was cited in the case of the Pentagon Papers. It's something to think about. "Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."

Reference: http://wikileaks.org/wiki/WikiLeaks:About

Rumored Manhunt For WikiLeaks Founder

I just saw this while searching YT for WikiLeaks. :P It's in parts, this is just Part 1. :P



- Dove Subingsubing

A Leak In The System

A Leak In The System
by Dove Subingsubing

The Internet empowers, indeed. "The Virtual Revolution" documentary by the BBC has opened my eyes to the limitless powers an individual can harness through the Internet, given sufficient resources and skills. The episode we watched, entitled "Enemy of the State?" presents the pros and cons of using the Internet for social networking, citizen journalism, and creating a whole new kind of virtual (but real) revolution.

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On another note, I'm particularly interested in the website http://wikileaks.org/, which was mentioned and featured in the episode. I haven't heard of that website until today, so I decided to take a visit. I found out that Wikileaks is a "multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists, and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate". Interesting to note that it's like a CIA by and for the people. It's very accessible to anyone.

I wonder if anyone has tried to attack or hack the Wikileaks system, because of the amount of information made public in that website. :P I would assume that the creators of that website are at high risks. Alam naman natin sa Internet, kahit ano posible. :P

Most of the posts in Wikileaks were from countries such as Germany, the United States, etc. I tried searching for any anomalies particular to the Philippines, but there wasn't much. :P

One post that caught my eye though, was about a Neo-Nazi website and forum called "Blood and Honour" (March 2009). They're calling their revolution a "musical revolution", since they're grounded on the Nazi ideals and advocacies of one band (I forgot the name of the band). I visited the website and oh my god, are they creepy. D: And they're actually visible in some places in real-time, where they're flashing their not-so-subtle skinheads and Nazi signs. D:

...If it wasn't for the Internet, I would never have acknowledge the fact that racist, white supremacists still exist. *chills* :O

- Dove

the end..or so we thought

by: Kem Gascon

I am totally amazed at all the wonders the internet has to offer. After watching Virtual Revolution, a documentary from BBC, i was encouraged (ok, so we we're told) to try visiting some of the websites mentioned there that we haven't encountered before. Most of the sites were familiar but never in my entire cyber-life have I visited those for the reason that I was clueless on what they were about.

Some, like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Google, I know a lot about because I use these sites. I have accounts in all of them anyway. But there were also some which sounded familiar but I never visited such as WikiLeaks. There was also a website I never encountered before (it made me feel quite internet illiterate) which is PayPal.

I visited both WikiLeaks and PayPal because these were the ones which caught my interest (and somehow my memory). It's really amazing that the internet has given everyone everywhere the ability to pay from one place to another however far from each other point A and point B may be. That was almost an impossible thing to do without getting your feet off the ground ages ago. But now, it all rests in your fingertips. One click, you're paid! If we were in the ages when witchcraft was against the laws, this feat would have beenconsidered one...probably someone who uses PayPal would be accused of witchcraft. Crazy, yes, but it's really something "magical" and we can't deny it.

WikiLeaks is another splendid website. It provides many (confidential?) information and promotes press freedom! It is very useful if we want to know a lot of things that the government does not want to show. Transparency of the information of public interest, I believe, is significant to a nation.

The internet has opened a lot of avenues for us, whether we are a big company or a simple citizen, to be able to access and disseminate information. We can never really tell how to stop the internet from growing even more powerful and influential. I believe we still couldn't predict the end of this technology. We never know, tomorrow might have a new surprise for us in the cyberworld.