Wikileaks A Wholesome Political Environment - 919 Words

Aiming to combat the information asymmetry between governments and the publics, WikiLeaks marked its presence by disclosing classified materials online since its launch in 2006. Although the organization’s nature remains controversial, its radical moves undeniably challenged the order within the public sphere, and the influences it made is worth prudent evaluation. WikiLeaks believes that only with complete transparency can digital democracy be achieved. In pursuit of a wholesome political environment, the existence of a ‘healthy, vibrant and inquisitive journalistic media’ is imperative – WikiLeaks is therefore established to enhance public scrutiny. (WikiLeaks.org, 2006) As creator Julian Assange himself proclaimed, the organization is about putting scientific journalism into practice. This leads to the discussion of how journalists today ought to shoulder the responsibility of the Fourth Estate by means of investigative reporting. The conventional idea of investigative journalism comprises unearthing and crosschecking facts, and backgrounding them into an understandable discourse. Lovink and Riemens argue that WikiLeaks does the first, asserts to fulfil the second and neglects the third. (Lovink and Riemens, 2010) This allegation is further supported by Greene’s concept (as cited in Schultz 1998, p. 58), which stat ed that investigative journalism is only formulated when effort in research and original work of the reporter is involved. While the audience is given the