WikiLeaks and Opinion Polls

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange defended the release of nearly 40,000 secret U.S. military files on the Iraq war on Oct. 23. These documents revealed new details such as civilian casualties, the torture of prisoners and the role of Iran in Iraq. Assange told a news conference in London that these documents revealed the truth of the Iraq War. The original documents did not mention any names or contain any information prejudiced about any organization or individual. The documents on the Iraq War show that since American troops entered Iraq in March 2003 until the end of last year, a total of 109,000 people died and 63 percent of them were Iraqi civilians.

Before the release of the secret Iraq War documents, the U.S. had expressed its concern about the harm their release may cause. After its release on WikiLeaks, the U.S. government and military criticized the publication of these documents, saying that this could threaten the lives of U.S. troops and Iraqi soldiers. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen had severely criticized the decryption of Iraq War files, but the U.S. media did not go along with the government and made independent, objective news reports.

Compared to the release of 75,000 secret documents on the Afghanistan War on WikiLeaks in July, the release of secret documents this time is comparably less influential, with little coverage. One of the main reasons could be the upcoming midterm elections on November 2, with media coverage focused on the competition between the Democratic and Republican Parties. Moreover, for many Americans, the past Iraq War is different than the ongoing Afghanistan War. Even though the deaths and tortures revealed in the documents are much more serious than in the previous report, it is not something new.

The volume of the released Afghanistan War secret files is only one-fifth of the Iraq War's, but the attention from the public and the media was much higher before. At that time, public polls showed that those in support of and those against the declassification of the documents were almost equal. The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, an organization conducting research on current affairs and politics, found out through a public poll that 42 percent of people think the decryption of the Afghanistan War is good for the public interest, while 47 percent think it is bad.

The Pew Research Center provides a meticulous and objective opinion poll. It shows that the release of secret documents from the Afghanistan War had increased Americans' concern over the war from 22 percent to 34 percent, reaching the highest point after President Barack Obama announced the increase of troops in December 2009. It also showed that, even though the public was concerned about the war documents and the Afghanistan War, they were more concerned about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Pew Research Center also found that different people showed different [levels of] interest in the Afghanistan War secret files. Regarding the released Afghanistan War secret documents, 37 percent of people said they understand, 36 percent said they had some understanding and 27 percent totally don’t know anything. At the same time, 53 percent of those who understand and 40 percent of those who had some understanding of the documents think encryption is bad for the public interest. It thereby shows that concern and understanding of the documents has a considerable impact on people's reactions.

During the release of secret files from the Afghanistan War another catchy news item that grabbed the public’s attention — other than the Gulf of Mexico oil spill incident — was the wedding of former President Clinton's daughter, Chelsea. On the issue of whether the media handled the other news appropriately, the Pew Research Center found that 58 percent of people thought the media coverage of Chelsea’s wedding was excessive, 8 percent thought it was inadequate and 25 percent said it was appropriate. With regard to the secret files on the Afghanistan War, 15 percent of respondents thought coverage was excessive, 41 percent thought it was inadequate and another 32 percent said it was appropriate. Hence, it seems that most Americans really want to know more about the real situation in Afghanistan. For them, despite how the decryption will embarrass their government, they believe citizens have the right to obtain the real information. At least for the public's right to information, the declassification of the Afghanistan War documents is something consistent with the public interest. The declassification of Iraq War documents today is equally important.

The Pew Research Center's public opinion polls on current affairs are not meant to act as a government tool to get public support. Their purpose is to find the discrepancies between public interest in the truth and media coverage. This type of poll, based in a free country with open public information, is relatively fair and objective. The more open the public information is, the less likely authority is to control any public information. The release of any information will then be beneficial to the people and won’t cause any uncontrollable public response.