Viral Video: Careful, This Stuff's Powerful

For the past four years, the Sunshine Press, which operates the non-profit website WikiLeaks, has caused quite a stir among governments—both U.S. and international—by posting documents and information provided or “leaked” to it by anonymous sources close to those governments. As an example of just how seriously governments take WikiLeaks, a March 2008 U.S. cyber counterintelligence report posted on the site on March 15, 2010 details U.S. Intelligence’s plans to destroy WikiLeaks, citing that there is no way to determine whether sensitive or classified information is shared that might damage national security. WikiLeaks has persevered, although not without its share of censure (it’s been blocked by the governments of China, Zimbabwe, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam and Israel, for example).

But on April 5, it posted what is probably the most sensational material in its tenure: a classified 18-minute video leaked by an anonymous Pentagon source that allegedly shows the Apache helicopter killing of two Reuters employees and their rescuers outside of Baghdad in 2007, which it posted under the URL “CollateralMurder.com.” For the past three years, Reuters had unsuccessfully attempted to obtain this video and related materials from the Pentagon through the Freedom of Information Act.

WikiLeaks sent two reporters to Baghdad to research the story and interview the families of the victims and, according to founder Julian Assange, broke the code that encrypted the video. Within 24 hours of its posting, it had garnered over 1.3 million hits on YouTube. Critics of the video, including a helicopter pilot involved in the mission, state that the video is misleading in its portrayal of a malicious act rather than the result of confusion on the ground. But the mushroom effect of this video points up the immediacy of digital media and its powerful reach.

WikiLeaks is currently in the process of soliciting funds to cover the costs of releasing another video showing civilian killings in Afghanistan. The organization has operated on a budget of about $600,000 per year, and states that it has currently raised just over half of that for 2010. It claims to have thousands of pages of documents that it cannot share with the world due to limited capacity, but its method of digital sharing appears to be a cost-effective one: even $10 can cover the cost of releasing a document to 10,000 people.

As Assange puts it, “In terms of journalism efficiency, I think we discovered a lot with a small amount of resources.”

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Senate Takes Pass on Shield Law – For Now

Despite broad bipartisan support from both Congressional houses, Senate leaders decided against taking the Free Flow of Information Act (S. 2035) to the Senate floor yesterday. According to Lucy Dalglish, executive director for Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the goal of this important bill is to “create a qualified federal shield law that restricts the federal government’s ability to subpoena journalists.”

Despite the procedural delay, Dalglish says the Free Flow Act is still alive. In the past nine months, the Senate Judiciary Committee and full House of Representatives have passed the measure. According to RCFP, a revised version of the bill could be brought to the floor in September.

For more, see www.rcfp.org.

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Attorney General Nominee Wouldn't Shield Journalists

Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey, a 66-year-old retired federal judge, has issued statements saying that he will not tolerate Executive Branch meddling in Justice Department affairs and he does not support the use of torture in the interrogation of terrorist suspects.

But he also indicated that he does not support the proposed shield law that would allow journalists to keep their sources confidential. Mukasey believes that it’s easier to correct procedures internally when necessary than to reverse legislation that’s “etched in stone,” and said he believes that the Justice Department’s procedures have been effective so far with regard to interrogations.

President Bush has threatened to veto the shield law bill, which passed overwhelmingly in the House this past week.

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How the New Attorney General Might View FOIA

Betcha didn’t know that AG nominee Michael Mukasey used to write for United Press International. We imagine an AG who used to be a reporter wouldn’t be a bad thing these days. “Judge Mukasey is the first attorney general nominee in many years to have a firm grounding in the law of the press,” says Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “We’re optimistic that this will lead to a justice department that is more open to public scrutiny.”

Lucy should know: RCFP has just posted on its Web site an “Evaluation of the likely impact of Attorney General Nominee Michael Mukasey on Press Freedoms and the Public’s Right to Know.” The report goes into detail around Mukasey’s background and history as attorney and judge. Important issues are at stake, with FOIA reforms and reporter’s shield proposal in the balance. See the report by clicking here.

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Shield Law Shenanigans

The never-ending drive to protect confidential sources who provide information to reporters hit a suspicious snag in Texas. The Free Flow of Information Act was sent to the scrapheap in late May after a Texas State Senator raised a technical objection to its description in a bill analysis. It seems one passage of the description used a comma when a semicolon was called for. If passed, the Free Flow Act would have protected journalists from being compelled to testify about, disclose or produce confidential information in criminal cases, with certain exemptions.

Suggested reading:

Houston Chronicle, May 22, 2007

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