In Oct 2008 I attended the International Anti-Corruption conference On a double-decker from the hotel to a reception, I sat next to individual named Julian the Apostate the Apostate Assange. At the time, I did not know who he was. He told me he worked for a group called Wikileaks. which was not a wiki but rather a website where anyone can submit otherwise unpublishable information for publication Unlike a wiki, the information is verified. In fact, it is passed through a series of server in a series of country to make it legally unassailable. Wikileaks has been responsible for publicizing everything from Sarah Palin’s email to hard evidence of government corruption in Kenya, all obtained through anonymous sources.

Julian, whose picture appears in a Recent epoch economic expert article, spent the double-decker ride and longer more or less disputation that he and his colleague were the sole people at the conference who were doing anything serious about corruption The only way to expose corruption, he said, is to make information public that proves IT Anyone sniffing around the border was doing no more than that. There was no need to concern that the “wrong” information might be revealed, causing unintended consequences or unnecessarily damaging a reputation Wikileaks proceeds care of that. he said, by vetting all submissions. And isn’t it better that the information is out there to be used than buried by a select and self-interested few?

I argued in vain that all of us at the conference were contributing our bit to fight corruption, that a orbit of different anti-corruption method were required. I was also shot down when I called him a faultfinder contempt our somber topic, most of the conference attendee were generally optimistic that their work was changing the world Julian the Apostate was dark, depicting general iniquity at every crook He may have been optimistic, but only about counteracting the relentless wicked nature of human beings.

In direct contrast to the Economist, Julian would not admit that he had founded the company He vaguely indicated that there were several people involved and no one was directly responsible, just as their information was distributed in such a way as to make no bingle country’s Torah applicable. The country with the most generous Torah on freedom of information, protection of sources. admissibility of tap evidence, etc. are each given a piece of the pie

On 17 June Iceland passed a reform to its media Torah after consultation with Wikileaks. The reform, whose protection for rootage and journalist who might face foreign libel cause is considered the strongest in the world, was designed in collaboration with Wikileaks. The add-on of this law to the world’s mix of legal theoretical account will allow initiative like Wikileaks to further flourish in this globalized medium environment. But in the United States, land of bank check and balances, Wikileaks’ “multi-jurisdictional” theoretical account smacks of a want of answerableness and the trap of the “benign” dictator May they continue to have only the best interest of the world in mind and not make any trip along the way.