Tag Archives: classified documents

WSJ: Human rights groups join criticism of WikiLeaks

A coalition of human rights groups including Amnesty International have reportedly put pressure on WikiLeaks to “do a better job” of redacting the names of sources from military documents it has published, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Amnesty International, Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, Open Society Institute, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the Kabul office of International Crisis Group are all alleged to have emailed the whistleblowing website with their concerns over the safety of Afghan informers.

According to the report, Wikileaks director Julian Assange asked Amnesty if it would assist redacting the names of Afghan civilians, and threatened to issue a press release highlighting a refusal to do so.

The exchange follows reports last week that the Pentagon demanded WikiLeaks remove all the documents from public access online and desist from publishing any more material.

See the Wall Street Journal report here…

WikiLeaks revelations show a mainstream media “too cosy with power”

Black Star News, an investigative newspaper in New York, has published a post by reporter Colin Benjamin who claims the leak of classified documents by WikiLeaks shows the mainstream media were “too cosy with power”.

According to Benjamin, the leaked documents paint a “starkly different picture” than that portrayed by US authorities. The material also puts the spotlight on media failures to hold those in power to account, he adds.

It contradicts the rosy assessments of officials that the war was being won with limited civilian casualties and illustrates the Taliban insurgency is much more resilient, with the fighters better equipped, than reported (…) Truth is the leaking of these classified files is also an indictment of American media’s failure.

See his full post here…