Assange: "in order to make any sensible decision you need to know what's really going on"

[kpete]

"You Need to Know What's Really Going On": WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on the Fight for the Truth
Assange: "In order to make any just decision you need to know and understand what abuses or plans for abuses are occurring."

................

Why did you select "The New York Times," "The Guardian," and "Der Spiegel" as the media outlets to share the leak with?

Assange: We make a promise to our sources: one, that we will do everything in our power technically and legally to protect them; two, that we are going to maximize the impact of the submissions that they make to us, and we believe in this case that that was the way to maximize the impact.

Why do you think so many important sources have chosen to give their information to WikiLeaks instead of traditional media outlets?

Assange: Because we are specialists. We specialize in protecting sources. We specialize in getting the full material out to the public. Now, mainstream media, through internal concentrations in countries where there's really only sort of one or two dominant media organizations in a town, has had a sort of perverse effect where sources are treated as something to be kept at bay rather than something to treasure. That has resulted in organizations such as "The Times" sitting on significant disclosures for a year, not releasing them, or only picking a few cherries from a whistle-blower's disclosure, instead of all the material that they submit in their documents.

Sources understand that we are the most reliable, from a safety point of view and from a publishing point of view, organization to deal with.

How do you see WikiLeaks -- is it journalism, activism, or some new kind of intermediary between sources and journalists?

Assange: The vision behind it is really quite ancient: in order to make any sensible decision you need to know what's really going on, and in order to make any just decision you need to know and understand what abuses or plans for abuses are occurring. As technologists, we can see that big reforms come when the public and decision makers can see what's really going on.

more:
http://www.alternet.org/story/147734/%22you_need_to_know_what%27s_really_going_on%22%3A_wikileaks_founder_julian_assange_on_the_fight_for_the_truth/?page=2

[flyarm]

1. I love this man! He is what i have been begging for in suposed journalists for a very very long time

Too bad we have no journalists or so few ( Sy Hersh comes to mind) in our own country anymore! We barely get fragments of truth and it is so white washed down it is worthless. Most working people don't have the time nor inclination to put the fragments together! Consequently any truth that is exposed in fragments, is lost and that is where our government uses their trump card of deniability.

Thank You Julian, you give me what little faith I have left, in humans!

[truedelphi]

2. Error, you cn only rec posts from 24 hours ago

I am loving the whole Wikileaks thing.