Wikileaks — AEJMC Hot Topics

Recent US court verdict infringes on privacy, according to former WikiLeaks aide

By Dominic Rushe on The Guardian, Nov. 11, 2011 –

Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks volunteer Birgitta Jonsdottir has slammed the decision by US courts to open her Twitter account to the US authorities and is taking her case to the Council of Europe.

On Thursday a US judge ruled Twitter must release the details of her account and those of two other Twitter users linked to WikiLeaks. Jonsdottir learned in January that her Twitter account was under scrutiny from the Justice Department because of her involvement last year with WikiLeaks’ release of a video showing a US military helicopter shooting two Reuters reporters in Iraq. She believes the US authorities want to use her information to try and build a case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Later in the article Jonsdottir said,

“I want everybody to be fully aware of the rights we apparently forfeit every time we sign one of these user agreements that no one reads,” said Jonsdottir.

Read the article on The Guardian.

LSE: Should Journalism Students Be More Like Julian Assange?

On the London School of Economics and Political Science blog, Charlie Beckett asks the question of whether or not journalism students should be taught to be more like Julian Assange. He makes the argument that they should. He said at the beginning of his post:

“Imagine Julian Assange ran a journalism school. Why not? He’s created one of the world’s biggest media brands on a tiny budget. It’s produced some of the most extraordinary pieces of journalism in the digital era and he’s worked with all the big names. If you judge journalism by how much the people in power hate you, then he scores A*.

I think we can all learn from WikiLeaks.

Later in the post he goes on to say:

“What made WikiLeaks work was Assange’s ideological drive and his all-consuming desire to use digital communications as a political weapon. He spotted a new business model and a novel kind of platform.”

His argument is that students should learn not only what their mainstream media bosses want, but also learn new and “disruptive” ideas.

Read the full post at LSE