A number of people involved in WikiLeaks have resigned to start their own whistle-blower site.
Key people involved with WikiLeaks have reportedly resigned to start up their own rival whistle-blower site.
The new site is dubbed Openleaks, and will debut on Dec. 13, according to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
The news follows the arrest this week of WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange, who was picked up by police in the U.K. after Swedish
authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on sexual assault charges.
He has pleaded not guilty.
According to the newspaper, those who resigned from WikiLeaks
complained of Assange's management style, and his use of the
organization to explain his legal troubles. Still, one of the
Openleaks' organizers told the paper the new site will support WikiLeaks' mission to provide information to the masses.
"Our long term goal is to build a strong, transparent platform to
support whistle-blowers--both in terms of technology and
politics--while at the same time encouraging others to start similar
projects," the source, who requested anonymity, was quoted as saying.
"As a short-term goal, this is about completing the technical
infrastructure and ensuring that the organization continues to be
democratically governed by all its members, rather than limited to one
group or individual."
According to the report, Openleaks will not receive and publish
information directly, but instead will offer other organizations access
to material for possible publication. Internal documents shared with
the reporter state Openleaks seeks to become a middleman with no
political agenda other than "the dissemination of information to
the media, the public, non-profit organizations, trade and union
organizations and other participating groups."
This approach, a source reportedly told the paper, is meant to avoid
the kind of public pressure WikiLeaks has faced since publishing
classified U.S. diplomatic cables online. Though businesses such as
PayPal and MasterCard have cited terms-of-service violations as their
reasons for cutting ties to WikiLeaks, many have suspected pressure
from the U.S. government has also played a role.
"All editorial control and responsibility rests with the publishing
organization," the paper quoted a source as saying. "We will, as far as
possible, take the role of the messenger between the whistleblower and
the organization the whistleblower is trying to cooperate with. As a
result of our intention not to publish any document directly and in our
own name, we do not expect to experience the kind of political pressure
which WikiLeaks is under at this time."
Email
Print
