Tag Archives: cablegate

#media140 – El Pais writer Joseba Elola ‘witnessing history’ with WikiLeaks

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“I’ve never lived something like that and I don’t think I will live something again like that,” – these are the words of El Pais staff writer Joseba Elola, reflecting on his work on the diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

Speaking on a WikiLeaks roundtable discussion at #media140, Elola spoke about the journey from arranging to meet with Julian Assange for an interview, to helping El Pais join outlets such as the Guardian and Der Spiegel as a media partner of the whistleblower website in its release of more than 250,000 secret and confidential cables sent by US embassies around the world.

Three months after requesting an interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the pair met, Elola told the conference.

He is a fascinating character, a brilliant person, extremely intelligent.

At the end of the interview I asked him if he had anything on Spain. Why don’t you include also a Spanish media as part of your launch, I asked him, why don’t you transfer your documents to El Pais, we will help.

He said let him mull it over. I came back to Madrid, I was excited and then quite an ordeal began.

You meet them, you see them, but then it takes a long, long while to get to see them.

I got an email from him three weeks afterwards and in the newsroom we were excited, finally that long-awaited email came asking for the specific number for the director.

I have never lived anything like it in my life, it was like witnessing history of the 21st century.

All of a sudden you get new information every day, day after day, it was a very exciting experience.

Speaking further with Journalism.co.uk he added that while he fears it will take “years before we manage to get another release of such relevant information”, he is “so happy to have been able to play a little role in that story”.

I hope we keep on being a reliable media for any platform; WikiLeaks, OpenLeaks, KanariLeaks, BrusselsLeaks or whatever.

I think the important thing is to keep your brand reliable to the public and I hope that the fact we were involved in Cablegate might raise some confidence in the people who leak information into the public, too.

I really think the media for years have been a little bit asleep and didn’t do their job properly, and I think WikiLeaks brought something really good for journalism and for society.

AP: WikiLeaks looking to enlist up to 60 more media partners

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WikiLeaks is seeking up to 60 additional media partners to help speed up the publication of its massive cache of US embassy cables, the Associated Press reports.

Editor-in-chief of the whistleblowers’ site Julian Assange told the AP that he wants to reach beyond traditional media organisations such as the Guardian, the New York Times and der Spiegel, with which he has worked on previous releases.

Assange has previously expressed frustration with the slow pace of the release of the secret diplomatic cables, and said releasing country-specific files to selected local media would serve to push them out faster.

Sometimes, that could mean doing what Assange called “triangulating the politics of a country” — giving documents to a left-wing paper in a country with a right-wing government, or offering cables to conservative titles in countries with a left-leaning administration.

Full story on Associated Press at this link.

h/t: Jon Slattery

Guardian forced to print embarrassing correction over WikiLeaks cable

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The Guardian was forced to publish an embarrassing clarification on Tuesday after an article in its Comment is Free section heavily criticised WikiLeaks for publishing a US embassy cable that was put in the public domain by the newspaper.

The 2009 cable shows that the prime minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai met with American and European ambassadors, whose countries had imposed travel sanctions and asset freezes on the country’s president Robert Mugabe and his top political lieutenants, and private agreed with them that the sanctions should remain in place.

Tsvangirai’s private discussions over the sanctions could leave him open to being charged with treason and, if convicted, sentenced to death.

The original Guardian article, written by former Republican National Committee communications manager James Richardson, claims that: “WikiLeaks may have committed its own collateral murder, upending the precarious balance of power in a fragile African state and signing the death warrant of its pro-western premier.”

But the Guardian was forced to later admit that the cable “was placed in the public domain by the Guardian, and not, as originally implied, by WikiLeaks”.

The headline of the article has been amended from “WikiLeaks’ collateral damage in Zimbabwe” to “US cable leaks’ collateral damage in Zimbabwe” and the image caption has also been amended.

But the main body of the article still includes numerous strong criticisms of WikiLeaks over the publication:

And so, where Mugabe’s strong-arming, torture and assassination attempts have failed to eliminate the leading figure of Zimbabwe’s democratic opposition, WikiLeaks may yet succeed …

Before more political carnage is wrought and more blood spilled – in Africa and elsewhere, with special concern for those US-sympathising Afghans fingered in its last war document dump – WikiLeaks ought to leave international relations to those who understand it – at least to those who understand the value of a life.

Read the full Guardian article on Comment is Free at this link.

Update: Guardian deputy editor Ian Katz has published a blog post today explaining the error.

Some critics saw malice in the publication of the Richardson piece in the first place: why would the Guardian point the finger at WikiLeaks knowing it had published the cable? In fact, neither Richardson, a first-time contributor to our comment website, nor the US-based editor who handled it, were aware of the somewhat complicated process through which (most) cables were published. The piece was posted on the bank holiday after Christmas. The Guardian’s WikiLeaks editing team was not around. They were taking a well-earned break after months of working on the documents.

Full post by Katz at this link.

Guardian: Republicans seek congressional inquiry into WikiLeaks

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The Republican party is planning on holding a congressional inquiry into WikiLeaks as well as its founder Julian Assange following the recent release of diplomatic cables, the Guardian has reported.

WikiLeaks appears in a list of priorities for investigation by the House of Representatives’ oversight committee, published here by Politico. The Republican party reportedly takes control of the House this week.

The move is partly political, aimed at the attorney general, Eric Holder, who the Republicans claim has been too slow and too weak in reacting to the leaks.

He said last month that the justice department was looking at what action can be taken against Assange but that lawyers are struggling to find legislation under which the Australian national can be prosecuted.

Full story on MediaGuardian at this link.

Norwegian newspaper claims to have access to full trove of WikiLeaks cables

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An Oslo-based newspaper has reportedly gained full access to WikiLeaks’ trove of more than 250,000 secret US embassy cables.

An article published today on Views and News from Norway (VNN), “WikiLeaks experiences leak itself”, claims that Aftenposten has possession of all the documents, despite WikiLeaks’ strategy of drip-feeding them on its own website and through select media partners.

WikiLeaks has only published 1,862 cables so far out of 251,287, according to its dedicated embassy cables site but according to VNN, Aftenposten news editor Ole Erik Almlid told Norway’s main business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv: “We’re free to do what we want with these documents…We’re free to publish the documents or not publish the documents, we can publish on the internet or on paper. We are handling these documents just like all other journalistic material to which we have gained access.”

Full story at this link…

Independent: Vaughan Smith – ‘Why I’m sheltering Julian Assange’

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Fascinating piece from Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith on why he has given WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange a place to stay as part of the conditions of his release on bail. Assange was granted bail yesterday at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, but is still in jail following an appeal of the decision by Swedish prosecutors (background to his arrest on Journalism.co.uk at this link).

I ponder the disservice to Julian done by the media. With their stockings stuffed by WikiLeaks they dehumanise him with images printed and screened of a cold, calculating Machiavelli pulling strings from secret hideouts. The main hideout, of course, being the Frontline Club, where many of them have interviewed him.

They made him out to be the internet’s Bin Laden. The likeness might be poor, but that was OK because the colours were familiar and bright. Now the focus is on Julian’s court fight, instead of on the opaque political system that his leaks have exposed.

Full story on Independent.co.uk at this link…

#cablegate: Judge permits tweeting from court in Assange bail hearing

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As the second bail hearing of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is about to start, take a look at some of the following Twitter accounts to follow what’s gone on in court so far and what’s happening outside.

Earlier today filmmaker Michael Moore announced he had added his name to the list of sureties for Assange.

#cablegate: Newspaper editors on their part in the WikiLeaks cables release

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The Guardian has published a series of editorials from the editors of the newspapers who have worked alongside the Guardian in publishing parts of WikiLeaks’ latest release, the cables sent by US embassies across the globe.

George Mascolo, editor-in-chief, Der Spiegel

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/10/wikileaks-cables-spy-hunt-germany

Bill Keller, executive editor, the New York Times: “The reader response has been huge. Millions of page views.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/10/wikileaks-cables-new-york-times

Sylvia Kauffman, executive editor, Le Monde: “The arguments against us didn’t last long – people soon accepted this wasn’t totalitarian absolute transparency but that we had been selective in what we published.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/10/wikileaks-cables-french-reaction-diplomacy

Javier Moreno, editor-in-chief, El Pais: “All in all, it’s been the biggest story I’ve had in my five years as editor of El País, without any doubt. And measured by its international impact, it’s probably the biggest story this newspaper has ever been involved with.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/09/wikileaks-cables-huge-impact-spain


BBC: Pakistani newspapers publish fake embassy cables

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Pakistani newspapers have today admitted they were hoaxed after publishing reports yesterday “based on fake WikiLeaks cables”, according to a BBC report.

This follows WikiLeaks’ release of batches of diplomatic cables from a leak of more than 250,000 last week. It is not known who instigated the hoax.

The English-language Express Tribune newspaper, which is affiliated to the International Herald Tribune in Pakistan, published a front-page retraction.

The newspaper said it “deeply regrets publishing this story without due verification and apologises profusely for any inconvenience”.

But not all the titles who reported on the fake cables mentioned the matter the next day, the BBC adds.

Guardian: WikiLeaks insider to publish memoirs in January

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According to a report by the Guardian, Julian Assange’s former second-in-command at WikiLeaks is preparing to publish his inside story of his time at the organisation, which is currently at the centre of debate following a leak of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables, batches of which the site is continuing to publish.

One-time Wikileaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who was Assange’s second-in-command for three years at Wikileaks, is to write a tell-all book, Inside Wikileaks: My Time at the World’s Most Dangerous Website. German publisher Econ Verlag has announced that it will publish the book on 27 January, with English language versions sure to follow promptly.

The Guardian’s full report is here. To access a summary of Journalism.co.uk’s coverage of WikiLeaks’ latest release so far follow this link.