American Diplomatic Cables Leaked without Regard to Public Good

The whistleblower website, WikiLeaks, has begun to publicly release 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables. Large portions are secret documents, such as a recounted conversation where the king of Saudi Arabia pressed the United States to attack Iran. The nature of these documents will necessarily make this an international problem for diplomacy.

Secretary Clinton has condemned this as an attack on the international community and has called for the prosecution of those responsible. The U.S. government will undoubtedly reconsider their management of secret information.

In the Internet age, the number of cases of secret information being stolen from governments and private companies has increased.

It is said that an American solider in his 20s was responsible for the leak. Leaked information is not foreign to Japan either. Video of the Chinese fishing boat collision of the Senkaku Islands has been released online, as well as the Metropolitan Police’s report on combating international terrorism.

It is an understatement to say that, in this new age, governments and corporations must do a better job of managing their secret information.

WikiLeaks was founded by an Australian Internet entrepreneur and is said to be staffed by over 80 individuals. Regarding the disclosure of classified material, they claim to be making the truth known and defend the lawfulness of their actions.

However, it is unlikely that there was any careful discretion in the sequential release of over 250,000 cables or thought on the impact or reason for releasing specific cables.

It is no surprise that they are being blasted as an irresponsible supporting actor to the voyeuristic tendencies of American citizens.

There are numerous significant Vietnam War-era precedents of leaked State Department documents; however, the WikiLeaks releases cannot easily claim that what they are doing is socially beneficial.

WikiLeaks had distributed the leaked documents to The New York Times and other Western media, likely as a publicity campaign.

The Times had confirmed the veracity of the leaked documents and self-selected the documents to publish. The Wall Street Journal also confirmed the authenticity of the documents, but declined to publish, due to the restrictions applied.

Both publications acted out of the belief that citizens have the right to know and also in consideration of how the release of these documents will affect the national interest, which includes both the citizens’ and government’s well-being.

Precisely because we live in the Internet age, where enormous amounts and variety of information freely flows, it is the media’s responsibility to practice greater and steadfast self-restraint.