For over a decade now, governments around the world having been doing
all they can to reduce scrutiny over the exercise of their power.
Countries like China and Iran are rightly criticised for their attempts
to suppress dissenting voices online. But the US, supposedly the land of
the free, has a similarly poor track record.
President Obama has
been waging a war on whistleblowers from the Oval Office, the most
obvious example being the mistreatment of Bradley Manning. The
Obama-Biden campaign brags about prosecuting twice as many "national
security" disclosures as all previous administrations combined. There
have also been sustained attacks on my organisation, WikiLeaks, via a
financial blockade of donations enforced with the support of the US
government.
Most disturbingly, WikiLeaks has been warned by the Pentagon not to
solicit service members to leak classified information. Military
personnel who make contact with WikiLeaks or our supporters could be
charged with "communicating with the enemy," a crime that carries a
possible death sentence. The Pentagon has also stated this month that it
considers the continued publication by WikiLeaks of classified
information belonging to the US government to be an ongoing violation of
the law.
This sets a precedent: contact by military whistleblowers to any media organization may soon be treated with similar hostility.
But
these attacks are not just directed at whistleblowers and those that
publish their information for the public to see. Governments in the UK,
the US and Australia are seeking to extend already extreme powers of
surveillance so they can gather intelligence on their citizens.
Under
proposed changes to national security laws, the Australian government
will force Internet service providers to retain the internet and phone
records of all Australians for two years. Some agencies are demanding
even more extreme powers to keep a full record of citizens activities
indefinitely. Such extremism will in effect be the reality: the proposed
laws require the creation of a nation-wide infrastructure that is
capable of intercepting all communications.
Every email, every
Facebook post, every tweet, every google search will pass through this
database and portions will be stored and could be used against you at
some point down the track.
A nation wide mass interception
infrastructure is a national security disaster waiting to happen. Of
course, the changes to the law promised at the last election to protect
whistleblowers have fallen off the legislative agenda.
These are
significant expansions of government power without justification and
without any checks and balances to ensure that the rights of everyday
people are respected. There is no way of knowing how this or future
governments will use such power. Australians deserve to know what is
being done in their name.
Technology offers us incredible
opportunities to share information, spread ideas and collaborate across
geographical divides. It has the potential to shine a light on
wrong-doing, correct injustice and empower those without a voice. The
freedom to use such platforms must be safely defended, lest it become
simply a place for the government to spy on its population.
The
power given to governments to govern, after all, derives from the
mandate given by the people. Technology should be about empowering
citizens and giving expression to the inner core of our public and
private political lives. This is a prospect that makes the powers that
be very uncomfortable.
When an organisation like WikiLeaks shows
the emperor with no clothes on, predictably every attempt is made to
undermine us. The Prime Minister has never retracted the comment she
made about WikiLeaks being based on an illegal act. By her own
Governments admission, such an accusation is unsustainable. It is untrue
and should be retracted.
The Australian Government has turned its
back on one of its citizens, in order to avoid offending the US, and
has repeatedly lied about its support for me. Ecuador, after careful and
lengthy consideration of the evidence, concluded that I had a
well-founded fear of persecution and that I could not rely on my own
government to protect me.
It is bitterly disappointing that the
country that I love has abandoned my organisation. WikiLeaks is an
Australian organisation and an Australian success story and yet the
Australian Government has done nothing to defend us. Quite the contrary.
It has slandered us in public during a time when we face significant
risks.
For me personally, it is difficult and in some cases
impossible to see my family and friends. I have been unable to be with
them in recent moments of family grief.
I want nothing more than
to do my work in peace. I began my career as someone who understood the
importance of exposing corruption and wrong doing. I am now a publisher
who faces persecution for doing my job. It is the duty of publishers to
fearlessly publish the truth and the duty of all good citizens to defend
their right to do so.
It is time for Australia to embrace a
different path: to reject campaigns of harassment and intimidation
against publishers, journalists and whistleblowers. We must demand that
our government abandon efforts to impose a surveillance state on its
citizens. We deserve a government that protects its citizens no matter
whom they have offended or embarrassed. We have the opportunity to build
a democracy that welcomes transparency and the more just, humane and
responsive government that it brings.
Via
Saturday 6 October 2012
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