Wiki: The saga continues

Often it is the case that the protagonists of precedential civil liberties
issues are questionable characters. There are more Escobedos than Martin Luther
Kings in the pantheon of personalities whose names symbolize important constitutional
issues. Julian Assange is the most recent case in point. Assange leads a weird
life-on-the-run, and is a hero to some while an outlaw to many. Like many
notorious figures, he provokes the law and generates distracting side stories
like the questionable rape claims in Sweden. But Assange’s leaks are causing
commentators to revisit our government’s secrecy laws, and this is good.

Typically, fundamental social changes come slowly, unpredictably and painfully
to their leaders. Media scholar Edward Wasserman points out that the Internet
is a “transformative and emancipatory event offering an unprecedented
universalization of the capacity to know,” exactly what WikiLeaks purports to
offer. Five national commissions studied our rules for classification of
government records, and urged radical reforms leading to more openness, without
success. Wiki may accomplish by its outlaw approach what these prestigious
commissions failed to accomplish by pursuing traditional channels.

Responsible traditional press agencies like The New York Times printed most, but not all, of the Wiki leaks. Will the
Times be subjected to criminal
prosecutions, as Assange has been threatened? The Justice Department seems to
think — leaks indicate — that Assange might be indicted as a conspirator to the
actual leaker, Army underling Bradley Manning. Is the Times such a conspirator? Every leaker knows that all
media encourage leaks — are they conspirators by doing so? How uncomfortable
will the mainline media be defending Assange as the unpopular standard-bearer
of reform of government secrecy policies?

Stay tuned. Some good reforms of our government records practices may yet come
from these events. Why do we need unpopular provocateurs and extreme
provocative actions to get there?

Ronald Goldfarb is a Washington attorney and author. His recent
book, In Confidence — When to
Protect Secrecy and When to Require Disclosure, was published
last year. This is his fourth blog on this subject.