Human rights group condemns government persecution of Wikileaks

ARTICLE 19 is a human rights organization working globally to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. In response to the U.S. government's pressure on companies having an operational relationship with Wikileaks, crackdowns on access of Wikileaks documents by government workers and students, and other perceived mishandling of the issue, ARTICLE 19 released a statement containing the following interesting points. See the bottom of this article for a link to the full statement.

1. Denial of Services and Arbitrary and Non-Transparent Actions by Intermediaries

To date and without any legal justification, a number of companies have stopped providing services to WikiLeaks because of pressure from governments and elected officials. This has made it more difficult for individuals to access the site, which in turn restricts their right to freedom of information. ARTICLE 19 believes that in the absence of any legal authority or court ruling finding WikiLeaks' activities to be illegal, this pressure is unlawful and is in violation of national constitutions and international laws protecting freedom of expression. [...]

2. Lack of Legal Authority

As ARTICLE 19 commented earlier, we do not believe that recent releases of documents by WikiLeaks violate US national law or the law of any other nation. We recall that it is an obligation of governments - not of media and private individuals - to protect the confidentiality of official information, if necessary under legitimate interests. Furthermore, the US Espionage Act has never been used against a media organisation since its inception in 1917. At the time it was written, the Congress rejected amendments that would have expanded its scope in areas that were considered unconstitutional restrictions on the press. [...]

3. Blocking by Governments

ARTICLE 19 opposes various attempts by the US authorities to restrict access to WikiLeaks, in violation of their legal obligations to protect free expression. The prohibition of access to the WikiLeaks websites by US government branches, including by the Library of Congress, is foolish and irrational given how widely available the information is. Furthermore, the prohibition of access significantly weakens the role of Congress and its respected research arm, the Congressional Research Service, which, as an independent body, is responsible to oversee the actions of the executive. The unofficial warnings made to students that their future potential government careers may be imperilled [sic] if they discussed or linked to the WikiLeaks documents amount to intimidation. [...]

4. Whistleblower Protection

ARTICLE 19 would also like to reiterate our call for governments to adopt adequate protections for whistleblowers in this case and others. The UN Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights have stated that under international human rights law, Official Secrets Acts cannot be used to suppress secret information that is of public interest. [...]

5. Denial of Service (or DDOS) Attacks

ARTICLE 19 does not condone the denial of service attacks on Mastercard, Visa and other companies. However, we also note that there seems to be little effort made by authorities to identify and prosecute those who have conducted the attacks against WikiLeaks resulting in the website being taken offline, which also constitutes a violation of criminal law and a violation of freedom of expression.

>> Read the full statement (PDF).