WikiLeaks
|
|
|
Screenshot
|
|
|
Type of site
|
Document archive and disclosure |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, but the source documents are in their original language |
| Owner | Sunshine Press |
| Created by | Julian Assange |
| Slogan(s) | "We open governments" |
| Website | |
| Alexa rank |
 4,855 (August 2016[update]) |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | None |
| Launched | 4 October 2006 |
| Current status | Online |
/ˈwɪkiliːks/ is an international non-profit organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks, and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Its website, initiated in 2006 in Iceland by the organisation Sunshine Press, claims a database of 10 million documents in 10 years since its launch.Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder, editor-in-chief, and director.
In an interview as part of the American television program The Colbert Report, Assange discussed the limit to the freedom of speech, saying, "[it is] not an ultimate freedom, however free speech is what regulates government and regulates law. That is why in the U.S. Constitution the Bill of Rights says that Congress is to make no such law abridging the freedom of the press. It is to take the rights of the press outside the rights of the law because those rights are superior to the law because in fact they create the law. Every constitution, every bit of legislation is derived from the flow of information. Similarly every government is elected as a result of people understanding things".
According to statements by Assange in 2010, submitted documents are vetted by a group of five reviewers, with expertise in different topics such as language or programming, who also investigate the background of the leaker if his or her identity is known. In that group, Assange has the final decision about the assessment of a document.
On threats by various governments towards Julian Assange, legal expert Ben Saul argues that Assange is the target of a global smear campaign to demonise him as a criminal or as a terrorist, without any legal basis. The U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights has issued a statement emphasising its alarm at the "multiple examples of legal overreach and irregularities" in his arrest.
...
Wikipedia