When I say WikiLeaks, what are your first thoughts? Media website, news outlet, leaking military secrets and putting lives at risk to show what was going on?
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is at the center of this film.
It all started back in 2010, when WikiLeaks was brought to the web and gave a “safe space” for whistleblowers. A place to report government happenings to the news.
This very subject alone starts to bring in a heat of legal issues, the main question being “who is to blame for the information being reported?”
The website started in 2010, and WikiLeaks began posting about 400,000 documents about the Iran-Afghan war.
The US, once finding out, has been trying to charge Assange with war crimes of leaking classified information.
The thing is, this classified information was given to Assange via the website submission form, which provides people a way to “share” documents but remain anonymous.
Assange was brought back into the news when he leaked emails during the 2016 election.
Before this time, Assange’s legal team had been able to keep him “safe,” mostly taking refuge in an embassy in London.
In 2017, Vault 7 was leaked, and charges were filed against him under the Espionage Act.
The US couldn’t get him, as he was claiming asylum in the embassy, but at one point, he was arrested, and the final chapter of his legal battles began.
The film also touched on subjects of journalism and how the environment has become hostile, and some blame WikiLeaks for this because of the current administration claiming “fake news.”
I found this film to be an interesting case of “who do we charge with leaked information?”
Is it the reporter who reported (this is Assange’s case), or do we charge the person who actually shared the classified information?
I recommend this film if politics, journalism or government backstories spark your interest.