VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND DIPLOMACY PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT

Maja Mišović

CONCEPTUAL ASPECTS AND PRACTICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WHISTLEBLOWING: CASE STUDY OF WIKILEAKS

Final Master Thesis

Journalism and Media Industries Study Program, state code 621P50002 Degree in Journalism

Supervisor Prof. Dr. Auksė Balčytienė ______(acad. title, name, surname) (Signature) (Date)

Defended ______(Dean of the Faculty) (Signature) (Date)

Kaunas, 2017

VYTAUTO DIDŽIOJO UNIVERSITETAS POLITIKOS MOKSLŲ IR DIPLOMATIJOS FAKULTETAS

VIEŠOSIOS KOMUNIKACIJOS KATEDRA

Maja Mišović

KONCEPCINIAI PRANEŠIMŲ (WHISTLEBLOWING) ASPEKTAI IR PRAKTINĖS CHARAKTERISTIKOS: „WIKILEAKS“ ATVEJIS

Magistro baigiamasis darbas

Žurnalistikos ir medijų industrijų studijų programa, valstybinis kodas 621P50002 Žurnalistikos studijų kryptis

Vadovas (-ė) Prof. Dr. Auksė Balčytienė ______(Moksl. laipsnis, vardas, pavardė) (Parašas) (Data)

Apginta ______(Fakulteto/studijų instituto dekanas/direktorius) (Parašas) (Data)

Kaunas, 2017

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Contents

1. Introduction ...... 5 2. Whistleblowing Through Academic Filters ...... 10 2.1. What does it mean to blow a whistle? ...... 10 2.2. Wikileaks’ X-ray ...... 11 2.3. Shades of whistleblowing ...... 12 2.4. (Non-)journalistic sides of whistleblowing ...... 13 2.5. Forces which drive whistleblowing ...... 16 2.6. Impact of whistleblowing on traditional journalism ...... 19 2.7. Has Wikileaks managed to change the world? ...... 21 2.8. What goes around, comes around ...... 22 2.9. Has Wikileaks any guardians? ...... 24 3.Wikileaks Below Magnifier ...... 27 3.1. “It was a journey from the local to the global and back again“ ...... 27 3.2. „My ordinary life would never be the same again“ ...... 29 3.3. „We don’t splash stories, we convey information“ ...... 29 3.4. Wikileaks in journalism and around it ...... 31 3.5. „The data is essentially unreachable, unless the person to whom the data refers wishes to make an effort to reveal it“ ...... 32 3.6. „My first word was ‘Why?’ It was also my favourite“ ...... 33 3.7. „From having fun to ending up wanting to change the world“ ...... 35 3.8. „I was under the greatest pressure of my life. I was being surveilled“ ...... 36 3.9. „The Internet is the biggest surveillance tool in the world“ ...... 38 3.10. Potentials of Wikileaks and its influences on transparency...... 39 4. New Perceptions On The Issue Of Wikileaks ...... 42 4.1.Whistleblowing viruses ...... 44 4.2.Shooting the messenger ...... 45 4.3. Journalistic-feature enigma ...... 46 4.4. Wikileaks resource of consumption ...... 47 4.5. Fight for the right ...... 48 5. Conclusion ...... 50 Literature ...... 52 Academic articles ...... 52 Laws ...... 53 Academic Journals ...... 53 Online articles and other sources ...... 54 Newspapers ...... 55 Television ...... 55

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Conceptual aspects and practical characteristics of whistleblowing: Case study of Wikileaks

Summary

Nowadays a global statement, that the humanity have not lived in more democratic period with the lowest rate of censorship than ever before, is spread world wide. That ubiquitous point of view is supported by the Internet and online media where the audience could be informed about everything, almost everywhere and immediately. However, thanks to whistleblowing and vast information disclosures, it is obvious that there are huge datasets that governments keep away from the public. The problem emerges to be even bigger because those materials are the part of the public interest. So, to comprehend this issue and to explain it, this paper is going to be analysis of the clash among journalistic disclosures and ethical dilemmas. The reason is that all materials are revealed thanks to hacking govermental sources or by anonymous or some illegal ways of information leaking. On the other hand, it is the right of society to be informed about war, corruption, surveillance and other hidden issues. Furthermore, this thesis is going to be devoted to the reactions of the United States of America and the United Kingdom goverments and how do they act in terms of cutting down the leaks or how to stop it completely. The whole procedure of analysing is going to be spread through the example of one of the biggest and the most important whistleblowing organizations, which is named Wikileaks. During the development and uncovering of the study case, there are going to be answered even question how does it affect the journalistic profession and which are options that could afford the clearer image of the reality to the society. Regarding goals of this master's thesis it is recapitulated what is whistleblowing and why it is beneficial for the public interest and how it supports human and media rights. Further, it is realized how whistleblowing affects journalism and which are ways to draw attention of journalists to do their job more professionally and independently. Finally, it led till solutions how to fight against govermental opressions and surveillance through the example of Wikileaks.

Keywords: whistleblowing, leaking, Wikileaks, disclosure, ethics, surveillance, Assange

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Koncepciniai pranešimų (whistleblowing) aspektai ir praktinės charakteristikos: „Wikileaks“ atvejis

Santrauka

Šiandien plačiai paplitęs teiginys, kad žmonija dar niekada negyveno labiau demokratiškais laikais, kai cenzūra juntama mažiausiai. Šį dažnai daug kur matomą požiūrį pagrindžia internetas ir internetinė žiniasklaida, kur auditorija akimirksniu gali būti informuota apie bet ką ir bet kur. Vis dėlto, dėka pranešėjų (angl. whistleblowers) ir didelių informacijos atskleidimo atvejų, akivaizdu, kad yra didelis kiekis informacijos, kurią skirtinga valdžia slepia nuo visuomenės. Šią problemą dar didesne daro tai, kad slepiama informacija yra viešų interesų dalis.

Tam, kad būtų galima suvokti esamą problemą ir ją paaiškinti, šiame darbe bus analizuojama priešprieša tarp žurnalistinio informacijos atskleidimo ir ir etinių dilemų. Didžioji dalis slaptos informacijos dažniausiai atskleidžiama anonimiškai ir nelegaliai, prieš valdžios valią. Kita vertus, visuomenė turi teisę būti informuota apie galimus karo, korupcijos, sekimo ir ir kitus jai aktualius atvejus.

Šiame darbe tirta JAV ir Jungtinės Karalystės valdžios reakcija į slaptos informacijos nutekinimo atvejus ir atsakomieji veiksmai, kurių imamasi norint užkirsti tam kelią.

Pagrindinė tyrimo analizė paremta „WikiLeaks“, kuri yra viena didžiausių pranešimus skleidžiančių organizacijų pasaulyje, pavyzdžiais. Atliekant tyrimą atsakyti klausimai, kokią įtaką tokie informacijos nutekinimo atvejai turi žurnalisto profesijai ir kokie yra būdai, galintys padėti visuomenei atskleisti informaciją, atspindinčią realybę. Taip pat tyrimo pabaigoje reziumuota pranešimų koncepcija, kuo tai yra naudinga viešajam interesui ir kaip tai veikia žmogaus ir žiniasklaidos teises. Be to, nustatyta, kaip pranešimai veikia žurnalistiką, kokie yra būdai, siekiant patraukti žurnalistų dėmesį, kad jų darbas būtų profesionalesnis ir labiau nepriklausomas. Galiausiai „WikiLeaks“ atvejis parodė būdus, kaip kovoti prieš valdžios priespaudą ir sekimą.

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1. INTRODUCTION

According to my current university education, the investigative journalism has been named as „a queen of journalism“. The Watergate affair has been presented as the glorious example of journalistic investigations. This scandal, which is from 1972, when there were published sound recorded threats of the American President Richard Nixon towards the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). However, I realized that nowadays there are some information disclosures which have immense datasets which cover public interest and which are much bigger than the Watergate. At the same time that documents have been released by individuals or particular organizations and not by governments. One of those examples is the media organization Wikileaks, which analyzes and publishes large datasets of censored or otherwise restricted official materials involving war, spying and corruption. So far it has published more than ten million documents and associated analyses, as it is stated at its official website. The outset was in 2006 and since then it has been continuously published. After six years, Edward Snowden, who is former Intelligence Community officer and whistleblower, hacked and revealed the documents and provided a vital public window into the National Security Agency (NSA) and its international intelligence partners’ secret mass surveillance programs and capabilities. The both instances have in common the illegal manner to disclose information which has public interest. At the same time the way how they found the information produces ethical clash. However, it uncovers the fact that despite freedom of speech and free press, there are still some hidden and not transparent information even though now we should live in the period when the level of censorship is the lowest, which is supported by documents as Freedom of Information (FIO) laws are. “Currently, FOI laws are being adopted at an unprecedented pace. Nearly ninety countries have enacted these mechanisms, and of those countries approximately seventy have done so since 1990“ – states Greg Michener, who is a political scientist, in his article FOI Laws Around the World. (Michener, p. 145) Further, Brian McNair, a professor of journalism at the Queensland University of Technology approves contemporary situation about diminished censorship saying: “Since the arrival of CNN in the 1980s, and intensifying with the rise of the internet in the 1990s and into the 2000s, we have seen the emergence of a globalized news culture that is always on, constantly updated and refreshed, its content communicated around the world in circumstances where official censorship becomes more and more difficult to implement. This has made

5 government and the exercise of political power and authority more problematic than at any time in recent history.“ (McNair, 2012, p. 78) So this is the relevance of the topic – pointing out that the society should not be naive and believe in it that all of information are served for them by regular media sources as newspapers, radio, television stations and Internet portals are. Besides, laws and acts which should protect humanity, we are still facing with irregularities as hidden information is. That is the reason why it is significant to suspect and to investigate the media, because it could open more Pandora‘s boxes and some more prohibited and unallowed acts. Because of it there could be proposed an assumption that surveillance was present.

According to this, this paper has two goals:

1)The first one is to define the term “whistleblowing”, to find its conceptual aspects and to outline practical characteristics. Relying on these basis, it is going to be analyzed more deeply the significance of the whistleblowing organization Wikileaks, whose founder is Julian Assange and reactions of governments of the United States of America and the United Kingdom, which find it problematic and which oppose it and criticize it. According to it, the final part of this purpose is to distinguish what is ethical and what is just mere disguised morality. For instance the American government described Wikileaks in an offensive manner in the following lines: “In the wake of the first release of Afghanistan war documents, the Department of Justice considered filing criminal indictments against the Wikileaks principals for, among other charges, encouraging their sources to steal government property and classified information. Establishing that those who attempt to disclose stolen classified documents will face criminal punishment could not only shut down Wikileaks but also deter others’ efforts to open new, similar sites.” (Fenster, 2012, p. 765) On the other hand, in the report of Draft Investigatory Powers Bill from the United Kingdom, it is described how is possible to be regulated on the law basis in terms of the legal surveillance: “It is unarguable that citizens’ private lives and inner thoughts are now captured in communications technology to a far greater extent than previously. Intrusion by the state into this private sphere must only be done reluctantly and on grounds of necessity. At the same time, the movement of activity online includes criminal and terrorist activity, increasingly taking advantage of freely available technology which is by default encrypted. This second consequence has created new challenges for law enforcement and the security and intelligence agencies.” (House of Lords, House of Commons, Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, 2016, p. 5) 6

2) The other goal of this paper is to clear up the ethical dilemma and to find solutions how to enhance and upgrade morality, transparency and to secure privacy and to draw line by legal instances between surveillance and access to private information and what is harmful according to human rights and what is indispensable to be known and at the same time appropriate to the same rights. The scientific problem about Wikileaks as whistleblowing tool is controversial and that is why it is problematic to approach to it. For example: “Library of Congress in United States of America have blocked access to Wikileaks, which has raised a vivid debate on censorship among libraries. Consequently, American Library Association (ALA) has compiled a proposal for a resolution to support accessibility to Wikileaks and library associations in other countries are considering the same. However, as indicated, Wikileaks may also be used as a case to support such new bills, surveillance practices and use of technologies which extend capabilities of censorship and data surveillance. Unfortunately, there is not yet much evidence of the development trend towards another direction: to strengthen transparency and increase the space for freedom of speech within the aftermath of Wikileaks.“ (Karhula, 2011, p. 5) Thus the object of this thesis are conceptual features of whistleblowing on the example of Wikileaks, and the governmental manipulations (misrepresentation of Wikileaks in US media and the Investigatory Powers Bill of the UK). Regarding to achieve the goals of this paper through the object, here are tasks which should be reached during the development of the final result of this paper: 1) Focusing on aspects of whistleblowing in the light of the reviewed literature to identify the most critical issues identified in the process (techniques, manners) and outcomes of performed aspects (dilemmas faced); 2) Elaboration on public service aspects and the ethical dilemmas of such performance referring to effects for the society

This paper is meant to be written in analytical manner and in scientific-essayistic style in terms to cover already investigated aspects of the topic and to filtrate it through the discussion part regarding to uncover some new spheres of the analysed issues, which have not been implemented before. It is important to mention that the argumenation is on a conceptual level and the theses does not research at practical analyses of issues which are covered, rather, the questions raised here move around the ethical concerns.

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The thesis structure is going to be divided in three main parts – the introduction, the body of the paper and the conclusion. The main part is going to be mostly analytical relying on the literature – academic articles and secondary information sources as newspaper articles, books, interviews are. As well in this central piece of the work, results, discussion and new outcomes are going to be implemented. That is why this part of the thesis is going to be separated by three leading chapters which are going to be organized by subchapters which are going to correspond to mapped research questions and their elaboration. According to the just described sheme the first chapter is going to be dedicated to literature review where is planned to be the critique of already elaborated papers on the topic of Wikileaks, whistelblowing and transparency. However, it is not going to be the only subject of the survey but there are going to be included secondary sources which would make it to be more objective and more complete. Simultaneously, literature review is going to be theoretical frame and the base for the following methodological part, which is going to be the analytical part of the research questions. The second chapter is going to represent the „strategy“ how the tasks are going to be fulfilled and how the hypotheses, assumptions and specified tasks are going to be accomplished. Simply – it is planned to be the accumulation of answers on research questions. Finally, the last part before the conclusion, where everything is going to be summarized, the third chapter is going to be the core of the work – the discussion part – where are going to be commented all of analytical and argumented answers on before defined tasks. In this part it is going to be obvious what are the purposes of this paper and how it is going to contribute to scientific analysis of whistleblowing phenomenon and (un)fair law regularities about survaillance and public interest. The literature part which is going to represent the base of the whole elaboration and there the first ideas and answers are going to be yielded. This piece of the work is going to carry the “bulky” part of the work.

The research questions which are going to be answered are:

1. Acquaintance with the term, meaning and significance of whistleblowing - What are the main dominant aspects of whistleblowing journalism? - What are its core conceptual aspects? - What are practical characteristics?

2. Intertwining of the traditional journalism and whistleblowing

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- When whistleblowing could be defined as journalism and in what ways it is not journalism? - What drives whistleblowing journalism and its activities? - Has whistleblowing any impact on “real journalism”?

3. What does it come after disclosures? - What are the consequences and reactions? - What is positive and what is negative influence of whistleblowing on American and British governments? - Are there any regulations which could protect whistleblowers or they could just rely on themselves?

Beside the research questions there are hypotheses which should be clarified. After framing the topic thanks to explanations and results of the analyses of the reaching goals, it is necessary to implement the example of Wikileaks and using it to uncover these hypotheses:

1. Without disclosed documents of Wikileaks the society would never face with some information and that Wikileaks is very important in times of crisis. 2. Wikileaks follows the right moment when some of information should be revealed, tries to make transparency balance and resists manipulations of political and watchdog forces and inadequate presentations.

Regarding to be objective as much as possible, in this paper there is going to be implemented information from the academic articles of scholars from various countries. The reason is that diversity could bring more disclosures. Some of the authors are Australian scholar Brian McNair, Finish information specialist Päivikki Karhula, the professor Mark Fenster from the University of Florida, USA, Athina Karatzogianni from the University of Leicester, UK, the British researcher Andrew Robinson etc. Additionally in terms of the proper elaboration of Assange’s work, his writings and transcription When Google Met Wikileaks and The Unauthorized Autobiography are going to be exploited sources which would help answering research procedure. Finally, important source is going to be British Investigatory Powers Bill, Report of Draft Investigatory Powers Bill and newspaper articles on this topic about the potential law. There is lack of academic articles because this bill is from 2016.

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2. WHISTLEBLOWING THROUGH ACADEMIC FILTERS

2.1. What does it mean to blow a whistle?

Looking for the definition of whistleblowing, it is striking that it does not have to be necessarily connected just with journalism and reporting according to the following definitions which are embedded in the Law on Protection of Whistleblowers of the United States of America. What is more it is even debatable if it is just the part of journalistic field, because there is no evidence or emphasizing concretely about reporting or journalistic field. That flexible of hardly limiting character of whistleblowing shows that people who disclose information about corruption, embezzlements, frauds, irregularities, theft, are not reporters in one hundred percentages of the existing cases. At the same time, it refers that journalism is not the only way to reveal details about immoral and penal acts. The most important is that the result is positive, that it activates solution, reduction of inappropriate actions which spreads like an echo and inspired new similar disclosures. Speaking about these “risky” situations when fear and threats could be very „welcome“ and very common, it is questionable if there is some law instance which could protect subjects of whistleblowing. One of those is definitely the Law on Protection of Whistleblowers of the United States of America. The draft version of this document is conceived that way that before articles, there are brief definitions of terms related to whistleblowing. Therefore, „ ‘whistleblowing’ is disclosure of information made by a whistleblower in accordance with this Law to the state or another authority or organization about a threat to or violation of public interest; ‘a whistleblower’ is a natural person who, in terms of his working relationship; employment procedure; use of services rendered by public authorities, holders of public authorities or public services; business cooperation; ownership of shares in the company; discloses, in good faith, information about a threat to or violation of public interest in accordance with the Law.“ (Draft of the Law on Protection of Whistleblowers, 1989, p. 1) Furthermore, in 2010 it was organized G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan which was followed by the text Protection of Whistleblowers which is dedicated to legislation of a group of people who are eager to speak out laud about problematic situations and not to be afraid because they are protected by law. According to their survey, they found out that there is no common definition of what constitutes whistleblowing. “The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines it as ‘the reporting by employees or former employees of illegal, irregular, dangerous or unethical practices by employers’. In the

10 context of international anti-corruption standards, the 2009 OECD Recommendation of the Council for Further Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (Anti-Bribery Recommendation) refers to protection from ‘discriminatory or disciplinary action public and private sector employees who report in good faith and on reasonable grounds to the competent authorities...’“ (G20 Leaders, 2010, p. 7) The crucial characteristic of whistleblowers is that people speak about certain topic because of good intentions and thinking about unjustice, eager to dimish and repress similar and potential situations in the future. As it is explained in G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan that the principle requirements are done in “good faith” and on “reasonable grounds” by whistleblowers. (G20 Leaders, 2010)

2.2. Wikileaks’ X-ray

In a brief summary it could be said that the main dominant aspect of whistleblowing is a personal initiative to uncover a story which negatively affected rights of others or made some material, physical or emotional harassment or violation in terms to cut down the number of the similar cases in the future. Mostly people, who want to “activate” described procedure, should have good intentions and already collected arguments and adequate evidences. Finally, laws which could protect those people should be “a crown” of whistleblowing journalism. Connecting theoretical explanation of the whistleblowing with the real example of the Wikileaks, which is the online platform for millions of leaking information, there is an insight of conspiracy, which is logical to be the subjected of leaking information because of its always foolish background. Julian Assange made a vivid description of “conspiratorial” state to life comparing it with a beast with arteries and veins whose blood may be thickened and slowed until it falls. From his point of view that creature is unable to sufficiently comprehend and control the forces in its environment. His basic point is that leaking is not merely a tool for reform but a weapon for resistance. At the same time leaks deprive authoritative institutions of their means to control their communications and subjugate their populations. (Assange, 2011) Further he explains that the more hidden or irregular information an organization has, there are more chances for terrifying reactions about leaking. He adds that in conditions of easy leaking, secretive or unjust systems are nonlinearly hit relative to open, just systems. Since unjust systems, by their nature induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance. (Fenster, 2012) 11

However, that does not protects media organizations, as Wikileaks is for example, from conspiracy theories, potential accusations or similar claims which should be deleted in case if there is lack of truthfulness. Peeling another layer of an oninon, there is an elaboration of Trevor Timm, who is a Guardian U.S. columnist and executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, saying that the Justice Department of the United States of America has reportedly tried to avoid a problem by trying to craft charges against Wikileaks leader Julian Assange for using classified information from his source under “conspiracy to commit espionage” theory. Timm conveys that no media organization has ever been indicted or prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Some of constitutional scholars drew the same conclusion saying that a prosecution of a media organization would be catastrophic for press freedom and that would seriously and negatively affect the First Amendment. (Timm, 2011) Finally, it produces big suspicion would it make any sense to be a part of any view of conspiracy product and to use that kind of “tools” if the basic aim of the organization is whistleblowing. That would actually violate the main postulates of Wikileaks policy, so that is why it is necessarily to “peel the onion till its core” in terms to find the real force which runs this organization.

2.3. Shades of whistleblowing

According to the literature, it seems like ethics and moral are inevitable features of whistleblowing. Vivian Weil, who is the director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Profession at Illinois Institute of Technology points out - “The term whistleblowing is reserved for actions of disclosure when the whistleblower steps outside of approved organizational channels to reveal a significant moral problem.” (Weil, 2012) Spontaneously, it introduces the other characteristic of this kind of disclosure which is collectivism. The explanation is that striking out morality does not exist just because of needs and interests of a whistleblower but because of others as well who should know about the issue and who should follow ethical principles. A group of authors J. Dungan, A. Waytz and L. Young elaborate it in their article The psychology of whistleblowing saying that there are positive and negative sides of collective spirit when it comes up to whistleblowing. The good one gives a chance for a person to reveal a piece of information in terms to enhance the level of common collaboration and to diminish self-centeredness among people. However, there is the other, less convenient side of blowing a whistle: “By contrast, other studies that have examined people’s responses to those who speak out against morally questionable behavior (i.e. whistleblowers); dissenting individuals are often 12 denigrated by the ones who themselves engaged in morally questionable behavior. These studies again show that whistleblowing can be to the detriment of group harmony.” (Dungan, Waytz, Young, 2015, p. 129) However, this is not the only negativity when we speak about characteristics which are related to whistleblowers. There are impacts and reactions of the affected side, which are always offensively colored. The fact that they are accused for some unethical or illegal acts could cause even aspiration for revenge: “Occasions when the whistle was not blown bring to mind yet another feature of whistleblowing - retaliation against the whistleblower. This is a predictable sequel and a strong deterrent. Retaliation may be the most predictable feature of whistleblowing, perhaps enough to make it a defining feature.” (Dungan, Waytz, Young, 2015, p. 129) Following the Draft Law on Protection of Whistleblowers in the article 12, which is dedicated to setting down types of whistleblowing, is classified that there are three kinds of whistleblowing disclosures – internal, external and to the public. The first two mentioned types are defined towards concrete subjects. The internal is making a disclosure to an employer, the external to an authorized authority. All of disclosures which are the part of ether, of the public, which are online, simply all of information which is accessible to people is classified as the third type. (Draft of the Law on Protection of Whistleblowers, 1989) The last one is definitely the one which belongs to the example of Wikileaks. So, being surrounded by positive and negative impacts, Wikileaks has to balance in terms to avoid dangerous revenge effects and to “squeeze” as much as possible from the media opportunities it has.

2.4. (Non-)journalistic sides of whistleblowing

As it is already mentioned there are two sides of whistleblowing. One is a branch or a type of journalism and the other “face” of whistleblowing is the one which joins whistleblowers who are not necessarily reporters. Analyzing Wikileaks as already established example and reading about it or even just surfing through the official website, it is obvious that it is not conceived and it does not look as a “regular” media portal, because there are no journalistic articles, interviews, columns, comments, texts of authors, brief report as is it characteristic for each journalistic online platform. However, Wikileaks is conglomeration of analysis, vaults, as the organization names those massive leaking pieces, transcripts and other revealed material which are previously elaborated and checked. “First, Wikileaks is not journalism, despite Julian Assange’s legal interest in declaring that it is. The organization is a conduit for information that becomes the subject of journalism – a channel 13 for data that has, in some cases and for a variety of reasons – its sheer quantity, its intimacy and vascularity – become newsworthy, and in doing so has impacted on the globalized public sphere.” (McNair, 2012, p. 83) The same author argues that Wikileaks is news, but not journalism in the accepted sense of the term. He explains that the traditional journalistic functions of sense-making, of narration and interpreting, which is important for the Wikileaks phenomenon, but they are largely absent. The style of Wikileaks writing, which comes from the hundreds of thousands of diplomatic or military cables release, is formed in official and often impenetrable jargon as those cables are. On the other hand, Wikileaks has collaborations with various co-publishers and partners and good deal of them are newspapers and other media houses. The professor Fenster claims that Wikileaks method is basically journalistic, but that it is formed as “scientific journalism” and that is actually at the higher level than traditional reporting. He quotes Assange who explains that Wikileaks does not have function just to work with other newsrooms and to publish the news, but also to give testimonies that it is true. He gives details about scientific journalism which is constructed that way that readers could firstly read a news story, then to find a hyperlink and to access the original document it is based on. According to this, the audience could conclude on their own if the story is true or not. (Fenster, 2012) Further, there are more statements which make even deeper gap between the journalistic Wikileaks and the non-journalistic Wikileaks. Charlie Beckett is founding director of POLIS, the journalism think-tank in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics. As well Beckett is an award-winning journalist, who wrote a book about Wikileaks in 2011. In an interview with Hannah Vinter he talks here about how Wikileaks should not been seen as an “aberration” but as a tool of influence on modern journalism. He observes that people joined Wikileaks because they were not journalists. This organization as a hub for braver ones could not be compared with the work of traditional journalists because they cannot compete with it. Meanstream journalists have specific targets and goals to accomplish, they have to answer editors questions and requirements, to follow ethical codes. Wikileaks is more than that and it has to reveal the truth which had been hidden. (Vinter, 2011) What is more, analyzing and distinguishing, what is important for the audience would not be possible without journalistic knowledge and work and it is one more feature which describes the other, journalistic side of the Wikileaks. The scholar McNair explains it thanks to the Wikileaks’ publications in the British newspapers The Guardian and conveys that this daily newspaper and this whistleblowing organization are actually antipodes of the modern journalism and that both are located at very ends on that scale. The Guardian explains its work as product of knowledge and

14 education which is factually based. However, Wikileaks is the one which offers for people to conclude without any intrusions and to educate themselves independently. He continues that in contrast, Wikileaks does not support that anything should disturb the relation the audience – information, because it belongs just to people. Additionally information could be evaluated just by readers themselves, if only someone would let them. McNair shades Assange’s view of Wikileaks, which is to be there as a channel of reality. Regarding it there ought to be minimal clue that someone has edited the content, because it affects the purity of objectivism. (McNair, 2012) The same author digs deeper about Wikileaks' content concluding that besides the wide public access to Wikileaks' documents thanks to traditional media, it is necessary to adopt that text to everyone. Before the disclosure that data was hidden and it was written just for few people who could understand it and who know the other details and the background. “The power of Wikileaks, in this regard, is that the information it reveals was never intended for public consumption. It was written to be private, secret, for elite eyes only. It is to that degree honest, and therefore has authenticity, which heightens its impact on those exposed to it. When mediated by mainstream news media such as The Guardian, it acquires further credibility.” (McNair, 2012, p. 85) In addition to it, Beckett sees that one more difficulty which has occurred Wikileaks is that the public in general does not see the journalists as allies. He gives an example of the hacking scandal by phones. That way of hacking information did not follow rules, laws and regulations drawing a parallel with Wikileaks which does the same. However, the difference between these two instances is that the mentioned scandal did not defend public interest as Wikileaks does. It existed just as a sight of vanity which has been directed in scandalous manner. Explaining this Beckett argues that it is not necessarily to find a new type of journalism. It would be sufficient and the best if journalists would do their job as it is supposed to be done. (Beckett, 2011) Finally the same journalist concludes that from his point of view it is a pointless discussion whether Wikileaks is journalism or not. He suggests that it would be the most logical way if these disclosures would be taken as regular journalism which gets its information from the Internet and social media. (Vinter, 2011) In summary, does not matter if someone prefers more to declare Wikileaks as a part of journalism or as it is complete nonsense to connect it with reporting, the most important is that the context is clear for readers and that people who poses information, which is significant for the public, want to share it. Then there would not be any need to define Wikileaks non-journalistic features or to “invent” some new affiliations because it is already familiar for journalism.

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Stefan Baack from University of Groningen in the Netherlands, who wrote in his doctoral research and relied on words of Simon Rogers, a data journalist, who commented in 2011 for The Guardian that Wikileaks did not invent data journalism, but that it has significant role in involving it in media offices. That is a reason why Baack quotes a group of authors that the cooperation and willingness to share is crucial for the good results in terms of investigative journalism: “The manner of investigators - ‘Lone wolves’ competing for scoops and unwilling to share with others. This is at least partly due to the interconnections between leaking and data journalism: while leaking helped to establish data journalism in newsrooms, data journalism helped to bring a mentality of sharing and collaboration to investigative journalism (Royal, 2010; Lewis and Usher, 2013; Parasie and Dagiral, 2013).” (Baack, 2016) The other necessary feature for data journalism being good at dealing with unstructured documents. Baack adds that using automation on a larger scale is crucial as well. So this is one more thing which gives advance to the Internet and new media to enhance journalistic work. So it could be concluded that according to new technology and some new methods, a journalist could be reminded of some basic particulars which are essential part of it. So that normalization could represent just a disruption of journalism, which should be ubiquitous and not possible to be forbidden. Simultaneously, it could represent an irony that Wikileaks which is “younger” than journalism is there to be a teacher and it is logical to be vice versa. However, let it be said that the situation is not alarming if those are just reminders, before the role of governement is elaborated in this paper in fields of whistleblowing in journalism.

2.5. Forces which drive whistleblowing

Besides credibility, legality, transparency and other particulars which should build whistleblowing, it is significant to find out what is that which drives those activities to “whistle” more frequently, again and again and more loudly. Because without that “engine” which gasoline is willingness to uncover more and more irregularities and to make our society to be democratic and just indeed, against hypocritical speeches and mere promises that everyone are equal while there are “tons” of unapproachable information. According to Fenster, who analyzed Assange's reports, it stays in his writing that Wikileaks discloses as much as possible information to put at the appropriate place – in front of public eyes. However Assange draws the only case when disclosure is delayed or minimized and it is in cases when it is shared with mainstream news outlets. The aim is to avoid any harm that could affect the final result which the audience would read, watch or listen to. Hence, Fenster stresses out that

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Wikileaks’ purpose is to disclose materials for everyone who is able to “see evidence of the truth”. (Fenster, 2012) Talking about the subsistence of Wikileaks and its force to survive it is logical to assume how it was before this whistleblowing epoch, how it would be without it and how it is now thanks to it. “We cannot know precisely how the world has changed because of Wikileaks, nor can we know how the world would be without the existence of Wikileaks. What we can observe is the presence of Wikileaks in a globalized public sphere that is unprecedentedly porous and ‘leaky’, at the same time as we witness the unprecedented global spread of democratic political structures. Can the two trends be correlated?” (McNair, 2012, p.83) Definitely additional strength for Wikileaks to disclose more and more is connected with reminding journalism of its work and if it is appropriate and at the level that satisfies the public interest. Beckett draws attention to the role of this media platform which existence helps journalism in terms to be its “conscience” and to ask again and again if the job has been done regularly and if the task has managed to avoid authorities’ “infections”. He mentions as well that does not matter if someone thinks that Wikileaks has done its mission in a good or bad way, still it is its point and it should stay like that. (Vinter, 2011) The example of Wikileaks’ revealed information about the war in Iraq is there to show some of reasons which drive disclosure energy and to represents its importance. Concretely this instance is there to show that wars are not just part of the history, that still exist and to increase the awareness of acts which are kept as secrets. “In so doing, it confirmed to global publics what the invasion of Iraq – and war in general – is all about. It educated those who may not have known the true nature of the war, and placed governments and militaries on the defensive. It has already forced change in the way they do their business. This is precisely why ‘Collateral Murder’ and the many more leaked dispatches about Iraq and Afghanistan that followed it provoked such fury from Western political elites.” (McNair, 2012, p. 85) The force which pushes Wikileaks to run “faster and on longer tracks” has been shown as power which influences at more fronts. That makes essential willingness of this organization to be accomplished. What is more this instance represents that it could reveal even greater impact and even more documents comparing with Wikileaks. A Dutch PhD student Stefan Baack represents the example of the Panama Papers in his doctoral survey: “The Panama Papers have been described as ‘biggest leak in the history of data journalism’ with approximately 11.5 million documents provided by an anonymous source to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. Compared to the Panama Papers, Wikileaks’ Afghan war logs 17

were tiny: a spreadsheet with 92.201 rows describing military events (Rogers, 2011). However, its release initiated a pattern that has been replicated in almost every major leak that followed.” (Baack, 2016, p. 1) It could be said that the trigger which catapulted the Panama Papers was caused during the latest step in a development that roughly started in 2010, when Wikileaks cooperated with The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel to publish the Afghan war logs. When we compare the Afghan war logs with the Panama Papers, one of the most interesting aspects is not what has changed, but what has not changed. With the exception of the Snowden leaks, where things worked out slightly differently, every major leak since the Afghan war logs included an anonymous source providing the leak using encrypted channels, an independent organization, international collaboration among whistleblowers and the proficient manipulation of data journalism technique. (Baack, 2016)

WHISTLEBLOWING

Unjournalistic side Journalistic

Panama Wikileaks Süddeutsche -The New York Times Papers Zeitung -The Guardian -El Pais -Der Spiegel etc.

Table 1. Whistleblowing and journalism

The most important and the essence of Wikileaks eagerness to continue to disclose is to tear down the secrecy that enables atrocity and abuse of power to occur. In doing so, it has increased the level of transparency expected by global publics around the conduct of future wars and military affairs in democratic societies, which is the key role.

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2.6. Impact of whistleblowing on traditional journalism

The common mission of “classical”, “real” journalism and Wikileaks is to enhance democracy and to realize the right of everyone to know and to be informed. The fact that traditional media streams, reposts and publishes Wikileaks’ information is already its spread influence. Now it is questionable how does media manipulate with it. The significant fact is that leaks always produce news in a row which are not attractive just on one-day level, but which are published for some period, not just because of the vast information dataset, but because of the importance of that material. However, it is not difficult to misuse material which uncovers secrets and to input conspiracy features and to create it to be a scandal. Thanks to collaboration with news outlets Assange and Wikileaks have managed to turn a tool of power into a weapon of the weak, as Fenster said. At the same time Assange had learned that disclosure which is not edited would not make any impression on the society. To have effects, and especially to have specific, desired effects, disclosures require context and background, as well as wide distribution. Because of those reasons Wikileaks works with “real” journalistic organizations. (Fenster, 2012) The founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange explains why it is natural that his organization and journalism should be connected and in the constant collaboration and that it should not stay just on that level, but that it should be spread further and that different societies could “negotiate” mutually. And all of that is possible nowadays thanks to the Internet, which represents pipes where everyone could lance what they have. He goes into more details elaborating that in sooner or later there will be the new way of the production of news and that the audience would not be any more just mere observer of the served content but that they could answer, comment and be involved in its creation. That new way of broadcasting and reporting would decrease the influence of authorities. (Assange, 2011) What is more, there would have to be an alternative gathering process that would combine new information with the information which is already known to the world. He argues that it would contextualize all of information for all different actors. Wikileaks would require a way that kept the actors to be honest. That would establish journalistic ethics and fight its fake presence. So, Wikileaks’ founder continues that it would require the involvement of the mainstream press in the effort to publish material that led to a greater state of justice. In that way, the flow of information would not be a matter for single journalists alone, or for individual media organizations, but for societies working together.

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On the way to accomplish it there are already some impacts that the whistleblowing organization influenced traditional news media which have adopted technologies similar to what Wikileaks has provided. According to the Dutch scholar Baack he wrote that this is the best illustrated by SecureDrop, a whistleblower submission system developed by the Freedom of the Press Foundation. More generally, there is noted the growth of awareness of online security and an adoption of encryption tools among journalists. Baack gives an example from 2014 of Glenn Greenwald who almost missed one of the most significant leaks in history because he did not want to bother with pretty good privacy (PGP) email encryption. The other example is that just six years ago it was hard to imagine different tools which function was to secure the whistleblower, the leak itself and the ongoing investigation during the Panama Papers investigations. However Wikileaks does not have just the function to create tools for disclosure and leaks, but to transfer those skills to mainstream media journalist, according to this Dutch PhD student who describes that Wikileaks adopted a role as a mediator from the ICIJ, a journalistic organization that exists much longer than Wikileaks. The difference between these two organizations is that ICIJ does not focus just on whistleblowing but provides and develops new ways how to embed leaking into their regular and traditional work. (Baack, 2016) However there are example of Süddeutsche Zeitung and the ICIJ which argues about the “raw” material Wikileaks publishes and gives an opportunity for readers to create impressions on their own. The mentioned media houses decided to be loyal to basic journalistic characteristics especially about confidence that a source gave to a journalist, so that is why his obligation is to keeps and to protects its anonymity. (Baack, 2016)

Whistleblowing

Scientific journalism Traditional journalism Data journalism Investigative journalism

Table 2. Types of journalism that whistleblowing influences on

So, it could be realized according to the literature that whistleblowing in journalism is inevitable and that these two information fields are really close and connected very tightly. 20

Additionally, it could be concluded that there are impacts of the both on the each other. Above everything it should be underlined that there are spheres of journalism which help whistleblowing institutions to be presented. Moreover, there are whistles which could improve the quality of reporting. The other option is to remind journalists and editors which are those basic journalistic principles. That is why whistleblowing has its signs in different kinds of journalism as already mentioned data, investigative, traditional and scientific journalisms are. There is nothing new that whistleblowing revealed but it has helped to all of these disciplines to do better work because of already developed and independent system that Wikileaks has and which some of traditional editorials do not use properly or there are authoritative impacts which influence their editing politics to be less professional.

2.7. Has Wikileaks managed to change the world?

Before stating academic materials about consequences and reactions caused by Wikileaks reveals, it is significant to stress out what have been the expectations. The main one is reaching the point of the real democratic society, which sense is that information which is important for the audience that would be published. However, there are still doubts if Wikileaks have managed to make the world to be a better place for living: “We cannot say for sure that digitization and the democratization of political communication permitted by YouTube, Twitter, Wikileaks and as yet unknown digital platforms to come have changed the world for the better (although, as the Freedom House figures suggest, the world has changed substantially for the better in the period these media have been in existence). We can say, without doubt, that they have made the management of the political environment much more difficult for those in power.” (McNair, 2012, p. 86) Still does not matter of the result, creation of democratic society could be justifiably slow especially because of the difficulties on the way to publish it, to maintain it, to spread it and finally to make it constant and to establish the disclosure of the information of the public interest as something which is normal and which belongs to everybody without any secrecy and palliations. Because of that, this sentance still has the wise meaning – “Wikileaks can enforce the human right to know, the right to speak, and, above all, the right to communicate information.” (Fenster, 2012, p. 773) Most importantly the impact could be seen in journalism and it is enourmously important that proclamation and defence of human rights are the subject of journalistic articles because that way its significance is more obvious and the chances to be fulfilled in reality are even higher.

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Thanks to rationalizing and normalizing leaks through journalism, whistleblowing has started to be routine. The scholar Baack compares Wikileaks with the Panama Papers and the more common journalistic habit to disclose and to share their leaks. He quotes Beckett who points out that actually that spirit of lack of selfishness in terms of posing sources could be even better result than Wikileaks is. More clearly – there is no need to exchange this organization for something else but make comparison and to improve their professionalism. (Baack, 2016) The same author emphasizes that the both ways of leaking, does not matter if it is the journalistic one or the „radical“ one which promises maximum disclosure - the both are likely to coexist in the future to compete for the trust of whistleblowers: „While advocates for a more radical transparency will keep questioning journalists’ authority to decide what is in the public interest, this type of boundary work and professionalism among journalists does have positive effects for the public as it helps to strengthen journalists’ collective identity, lends autonomy and authority against the influence of governments or corporations, and emphasizes journalism’s role as a public service over commercial interests (Lewis, 2012, p. 844).“ (Back, 2016) Besides the importance of forces which drive Wikileaks and other leaking emitters to operate and all of reasons, pros and cons, it is inevitable to tackle the scope of consequences and results which are epilogue of each leak. Actually that is the purpose of it and the point of its existence to make reaction and change. Albeit the aim is to split out just positive effects, there are some which are not confirmative. However, it could be just one more challenge for the combat and for avoidance of pitfalls and perils.

2.8. What goes around, comes around

According to McNair’s comments, he argues about governments, which are affected by leaks, and if someone is harmed because of it. But above all he glorifies the importance Wikileaks’ outcome of demystification and presenting the truth as it is without “playing hide-and-seek” with the society and misrepresenting the reality. McNair explains with more details the criticism of Wikileaks’ determination to make public what governments wished to remain hidden. That affects governance by removing the confidentiality leaders need to communicate, and that the leaks endangered sources and undermined military operations: “There have been no cases of sources named in the leaked cables being harmed. Even if it had happened – and it is a possible outcome of leaking confidential information – the argument that

22 leaks might cause harm to real people on the ground has not applied to most or much the information we received about Gaddafi and his blonde Ukrainian nurse, or about Berlusconi’s partying. On the contrary, one of the most important and positive ‘effects’ of Wikileaks, if I may use that language, is to demystify and lay bare the pretensions and absurdities of power.” (McNair, 2012, p. 84) The striking example of the strength of reactions about Wikileaks is the one that Fenster gives in his article Disclosure Effects: Wikileaks and Transparency about Assange’s claim that U.S. intelligence planned to “destroy” Wikileaks. However, the online platform seems to be too resistant. (Fenster, 2012, p. 767) Nevertheless Bob Woodward, an associate editor The Washington Post, claims that trying to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act would be a mistake and that any kind of prosecution would be the failure because of no legal violation, his extradition is impossible and finally because of the First Amendment because it would cause victimizing Assange and just make chaos on the Internet. As well he stays that is better to prevent any attempts of prosecuding Assange than to give a try and then to fail. He underlines that the glorious solution it would be if authorities would pretend as Wikileaks does not exist and to adjust their systems that way to stop making mistakes and hidding materials which are important to be known and shared with the society. However, he concluded that is impossible when it comes up to politics. (Masnick, 2010) After so many disclosures of Wikileaks it is reasonable to wonder if as a result there is a chance that latent information reach even higher instances. According to Beckett's off the record sources close to the U.S. government there are indications that there are going to be some change out secrecy and to make sure leaks do not happen again. But the American system cannot make it to operate without the flow of information. Regardless this Beckett conveys that in a world where there is so much data that is necessary for something like diplomacy or a military operation, it is very difficult to restrict that kind of information. (Vinter, 2011) Looking for more details about disclosure reactions among different states, it is necessary to take into consideration that it depends on cultural and political background as well. Further, that is hardly possible to have the same response in two different parts of the world. In the following paragraph it is described that political regime is big factor when we talk about „post-leaked syndroms“. Fenster describes it more neatly deviding it into Western and Eastern regims. He gives an example of China where are bigger chances for reformations and even revolution than in the West where political and economical changes do not influence so radicaly on each other like it is in the East. That is why democracy, time and difference of nations are those which conducts reactions about disclosures. (Fenster, 2012)

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The example of the United Kingdom deserves to be observed with more attention. At the end of November 2016 the Investigatory Powers Act received Royal Assent and during 2017, as it is announced, it could be reformed into the official law. As it is said in the summary of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016: “A Bill to make provision about the interception of communications, equipment interference and the acquisition and retention of communications data, bulk personal datasets and other information; to make provision about the treatment of material held as a result of such interception, equipment interference or acquisition or retention; to establish the Investigatory Powers Commissioner and other Judicial Commissioners and make provision about them and other oversight arrangements; to make further provision about investigatory powers and national security; to amend sections 3 and 5 of the Intelligence Services Act 1994; and for connected purposes.” Besides all of (un)lawful instances which could violate this whistleblowing platform, Beckett draw attention about importance of reporting while there are crisis and when substantial to take a side. Thus, he emphasizes that journalism is not a secondary factor, but it is the part of it. Journalist have to have attitudes towards Wikileaks and to be aware always, even under pressures from authorities, to follow the right side and to avoid being silent. (Vinter, 2011) Talking about all of these jeopardies which have been all around Wikileaks, journalism should pay one of the main roles and to justify its role a holder of democratic and to prove that its function is to make just world, to fight for it and to resist manipulations of authorities.

2.9. Has Wikileaks any guardians?

Going further into “anamnesis” of Wikileaks results the other sphere which should be considered is that a court could be an arena where Wikileaks vs. a government could fight. Having that option on mind, it is expected to make a survey which acts and laws could protect Assange’s platform. “The state can criminally prosecute Wikileaks’ members and others postdisclosure, but in doing so it must suffer disclosure’s effects— effects that transparency as a concept and set of legal doctrines assumes can be at least roughly predicted and measured.” (Fenster, 2012, p.781) According to the same author it is important to include the balance of transparency in terms to manage the fair trial and to distinguish when and why it could be appropriate to reveal information and when it should not be published, simply – to establish which information was at the rank of the public interest or it was not. “The first section proceeds by describing the balancing test in general, and the second section briefly summarizes the most prominent law that would apply to Wikileaks—prosecution under the

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Espionage Act for the release of classified national-security information and a First Amendment claim in defense. Transparency’s balance requires courts to presume both the executive branch’s ability to manage and classify information correctly and courts’ ability to fairly and accurately weigh the competing interests between secrecy and disclosure.” (Fenster, 2012, p. 782) Speaking about American law structure, there are two documents which stand in a position to defend whistleblowing – the Espionage Act of 1917 which criminalizes or prohibits dissemination by those with or without lawful possession and access to the information and the First Amendment, which protects free speech and a free press. Fenster analyzes it through the balance and taking into considerations that courts are the ones which ought to observe if national security is dangerous and to attach whistleblowing and investigative journalism to it. At the same time he alarms that it is important to avoid a paradoxical situation of uninformed audience in democratic society. Additionally judges should observe the situation from two angles – how it is thanks to disclosure and how it would be without it. So, objectivity comes as the crucial tool which should provide the presence of all details that occurred and those which could happen. (Fenster, 2012)

Wikileaks Rights Reactions Protection Right to know Destroying Wikileaks First Amendment Right to speak Prosecution under Espionage Act Espionage Act of 1917 Right to communicate The Investigatory Act 2016 information

Table 3. Wikileaks’ “friends” and “enemies”

All in all the point is always the same - the government can and will claim that disclosure is dangerous, and transparency advocates can and will claim that disclosure is beneficial. So, searching more about transparency balance, Fenster classified state’s and disclosure’s interest by government officials and commentators and reported on by press and in other open sources:

“Three concern the state’s interest, as recognized in the transparency balancing test, in limiting the adverse effects of disclosure:

(1) the claim that the disclosures cost the lives of American military personnel and of their allies in Iraq and Afghanistan; (2) the claim that they will affect diplomatic relations between the U.S. and other nations; and 25

(3) the claim that they will harm the flow of information among units of the American military, intelligence agencies, and State Department.

The other two potential effects concern the public interest in disclosure:

(4) the claim—rarely made explicitly, interestingly enough—that the disclosures have enlightened and enlivened the American public; and (5) the claim that they have played significant roles in inspiring or encouraging the democratic movements in North Africa and the Middle East to overthrow long-standing corrupt and authoritarian rulers. I consider these in turn.” (Fenster, 2012, p. 789) All in all, the fight between disclosures and governments is constant and the both sides are led by public interest and even some more aspects which cover international relations. However, it is questionable which of those takes the interest of the public as an excuse and which of those are really there to defend and protect it.

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3.WIKILEAKS BELOW MAGNIFIER

According to planned structure of the work, this paper transits into analytical part which should use products of the previous theoretical part which is aimed to be the base and where unanalyzed perspectives, which are the core and the inovativate part of this thesis, are going to lean onto statements and conclusions that various scholars have revealed about whistleblowing in the case of Wikileaks. Concretely, this chapter is going to be dedicated to fill the gaps that others, who already tackled the field of Wikileaks in academic, journalistic and lawful form, did not cover and which is essential for the phenomenon of blowing a whistle nowadays. Moreover, the methodological part of this work is going to be „occupied“ by comments and elaborations of the researched articles. At the same time it is going to be an outline which is going to show details which could have been improved previously in the texts of professors and other media and communication experts. Besides, answering and analiticaly processing research questions, in this paper's segment hypotheses are going to be clarified in terms if assumptions were truly or wrongly oriented. Finaly, above everything it is crucial to mention that here are going to be formed points how potential threats for Wikileaks could be destroyed. Actually, to find solution how it is possible to oppose the obstacles as the Investigatory Powers Bill in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and spin doctores, blockades and intellectual agencies of the United States of America, who have been trying to implement omnipresent surveillance and undemocratic manipulation of the information of the public interest towards the society and Wikileaks.

3.1. “It was a journey from the local to the global and back again“1

After defining the term of whistleblowing and looking for the determination of the acts which whistleblowers do and which are their aims, it is obvious that the example of Wikileaks seems to be too big to „fit“ into that model. Because all of examples are based on employers who are affected by their entrepreneurs or about some public services that authorities do not practise in the appropriate way. In addition to it, it is presented mostly from the point of individuals, but not necessarily. Even though, Wikileaks is the indepedent organization „without a boss“, who could negatively interfere its work, still Wikileaks has all of whistleblowing features, just it is a „hybrid“

1 Assange, Julian (2011) The Unauthorised Autobiography (p. 47) 27 and an unconventional example. But still it is there to fight against irregularities of authorities and to suppress it as much as possible. The other thing which does not follow strictly the definition is that there is not just one person who reveals all of the data, but the whole team of people who are there to collect, analyze, edit and publish the previously hidden materials. Further, the crucial characteristic of whistleblowers is that people speak about certain topic because of good intentions and thinking about unjustice, eager to dimish and repress similar and potential situations in the future. As it is explained in G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan that the principle requirements are done in “good faith” and on “reasonable grounds” by whistleblowers. (G20 Leaders, 2010) However, it is questionable if their aims are really good and reasonable. Because different people have different standards and it could be possible that someone start whistleblowing reveal without enough testimonies and proofs and that the inadequacy of a story is not revised properly and that could actually be biased and not objective. That should draw line of regulations when a case is “mature” to be tested. But if a mistake finds a way to leak and to ironically produce unwilling result, how a whistleblower should be treated afterwards? In the elaboration of the G20 Leaders’ plan, there are recorded examples of various options – by Korean Act that person should not be protected, India’s Bill on Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure (PID Bill) that person should be punished by imprisonment for a term of up to two years and a fine and the most frequent case - that person should be protected by law in honest error. Again, Wikileaks is different example. Although there are video, photo, sound and text evidences which could prove arguments of Wikileaks, there are still biased accusations by the side of governments whose data is disclosed. However, there could be contra arguments, because Wikileaks get all of documents by violation of secret authorities channels. On the other hand it could be debatable if it is unjustified and correct action. For example Assange does not comprehend it as something which is stolen. He explains that the online world is something above the old, traditional ways of announcing the information by broadcasts or publishments. Crutial the Internet allows the information to be shared and that conducts to freedom of informartion and freedom from information and which should be arranged by lawful frame. (Assange, 2011) The Wikileaks' founder describes that ownership in the digital sense is not at all like ownership in the old physical sense. He explains it in a form of giving an example of owning a watch. Looking at someone's watch, does not mean mugging that person. The first person just want to know the time.

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All in all, after analysing the definitions of blowing-a-whistle phenomenon, it is important to sum up that public interest is the one which is „guilty“ about everything and it should not be taken as something harmful because without it society would not be even aware of the pain of blindness and being stuck in a shadow of unrevealed information.

3.2. „My ordinary life would never be the same again“2

“We didn’t have offices, but we had our laptops and our passports. We had servers in different countries. We knew that we would be the most secure platform for whistleblowers the world had ever known. We had the gumption. We had the philosophy. Game on. I registered Wikileaks.org on 4th October 2006. I guess I knew that my ordinary life, if I’d ever had one, would never be the same again.“ (Assange, 2011, p.59) So, for the last eleven years the society would not be right if they claimed that „our heads are in boxes“ and that we are informed just by small and blurred amounts of served information which are not necessarily true. Nor they could moan that times of significant and huge disclosures as Watergate affair was, that belongs to the past and our dreams which could not be realized again. What is more, nowadays Wikileaks is not the only source of leaking information. It is not possible to claim with certainty if Wikileaks was the trigger for Edward Snowden and ProPublica to reveal more hidden information. Nevertheless, the fact that more disclosers exist is more significant than if they found inspiration in Wikileaks. Besides all of that, the always open conceptual enigma is if this kind of disclosures found by hacking files, copying it without awareness of a keeper of the information, secret recordings and other secret and illegal acts, is complety, fully and purely morally justified. Does it matter if the one who cheats is foxed? Analyzing this issue it is the must to have on mind that disclosures have been done followed by the aim to defend public interest.

3.3. „We don’t splash stories, we convey information“3

When it comes up to the practical characteristics of whistleblowing, moral is presented as an outline. Basically, there are no whistleblowers who do not follow the ethical principles. Because without the morality, whistleblowing would be irrelevant. There would not be any point to reveal

2 Assange, Julian (2011) The Unauthorised Autobiography (p. 59) 3 Assange, Julian (2011) The Unauthorised Autobiography (p. 99) 29 some irregularity without drawing attention to others to perceive what is harmful not just for an individual at that moment, but it might be detrimental for more people in sooner or further future. The founder of Wikileaks, Jullian Assange points it briefly saying that he has always had the very clear goal which is to manage to create the society which would be just. He gives details saying that his idea is to fight for complete transparency, democracy but for justice. The perfect match for him are his eagarness and the Web which would fulfill that natural instinct to opress censors and to fight for justice. (Assange, 2011) However, that does not guarantee that the final result is going to be covered by the same features despite the best intentions. What is more it is characteristic that reactions are always contrary driven because their hidden actions are finally revealed and they do not want to expiate because of it. That is why, revenge is common reaction to whistlesblowers: “When whistleblowers make their disclosures, others stand accused. People who feel accused or allied to those accused tend to hit back. That deflects attention from the accused. Retaliation is very damaging.” (Dungan, Waytz, Young, 2015, p. 129) Unfortuantely the example of Wikileaks is not excused from it. The information specialist P. Karhula gave examples how Wikileaks has suffered through attacks and blocks and how a denial- of-service (DoS) attack was carried out against the Wikileaks website: “Wikileaks was blocked by government organizations and service providers in China, UAE, Australia (on a black list), Switzerland (by a US service provider) and in the USA (from Federal Government staff, Library of Congress, Department of Education). Also, in California Wikileaks was temporarily blocked from all DNS addresses after the cable leaks.“ (Karhula, 2011, p.2) So these facts could be related to the phrase „do not kill the messanger“ which means „do not blame the person who brings bad news“ which was said by Sophocles according to Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman. Related saying - „Don't shoot the piano-player; he's doing the best he can. Don't hurt innocent people.“ It was originated in the United States around 1860. A couple of decades after it, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) saw this saying on a notice in a Leadville, Colorado, saloon. That is why this phrase is mostly quoted by him. Jullian Assange describes the meaning of it from his perspective and connects it with collectivism, which is one more characteristic of whistleblowing. He retells how he took Orwell’s words and how he adopted as hope in terms of managing to reach materials which should be revealed. Being aware of it he realized that the society is in charge of everything and that during this digital period and manipulating with a message as the medium, everything is possible. Because people become messangers and the Internet is the tool which would reveal despite obstacles. Assange mentioned even difficulties which have been there as financing is and critics and that makes Wikileaks to be even more atractive for being shot as the messenger. (Assange, 2011) 30

However, the story about collective strength could actually broaden minds of people and create the already mentioned group harmony. So what is collectivism which drives Wikileaks if it is not the fight against secrecy and selfishness of elites, authorities and just few selected people, who keep information just for themselves, which is important for the whole society? To pose it in a simplier manner – the collectivism of whistleblowing is a battle against hidding the truth. According to Assange there have never been any classifications on national or ideological basis. The only church and the allies of this organization have been those who fight for truth. (Assange, 2011) Analyzing the subject of revealed information, according to the already mentioned Draft Law on Protection of Whistleblowers, whistleblowing could be internal, external and to the public. Again, this selection was settled for the other kind of whistleblowing related to employees of companies, but it could still be implemented for the example of Wikileaks. The reason is that there is nothing and no one more important than society, which should be informed by Wikileaks. That means that this whistles of this organizations should be embedded into the third group – whistleblowing to the public. Simultaneously it is the core of „problem“ and the main practical characteristic – serving the public by disclosures which are supposed to be the part of their awareness is everything – it is the aim and it is force which activates whistleblowing.

3.4. Wikileaks in journalism and around it

As it was already stated in the literature review part, whistleblowing could be related to journalism, but it is not necessarily. It could be “far away” from news reporting and media. That type of blowing a whistle is mostly linked to illegal actions in companies or organizations between employers and employees or employees and authorities. So, it is not difficult to conclude that Wikileaks should be distinguished as journalistic type of whistleblowing. However, there are dilemmas about that if Wikileaks’ disclosures are the part of journalism or not. Observing the official web site of Wikileaks, it could be concluded that it is not organized like regular news portals because there are not standard sections of different political, life, sport entertainment aspects, but about intelligence, global economy, war and military and other topics which are not so “light”. The fact which is closely related to the just described selection is that Wikileaks does not have frequency of publishing content on daily basis. The explanation is that it is not possible to check all of information for so short period and even if it would be likely, the audience could not adopt it easily because besides the fact there is so much information, the point lays in circumstance 31 that the content is too complicate and delicate that it is not manageable to absorb it so quickly and so simply. Additionally, initially it was written just for a few small groups of people thinking that just they deserve to know it. That is why the style of those writing should be adjusted for the audience and process could be time consuming. Even though there are different authors who argue about the journalistic features of Wikileaks, it is really evident that without traditional media there would not be such big impact of the revealed documents by Wikileaks. This could be observed from that perspective that any kind of publication and especially this kind of disclosers which are important for the whole world would not have any importance without journalism. That means if Wikileaks was not closely connected to journalism, its impact would not be heard or seen as it is in reality. Additionally, it is completely rational to publish documents through already known media which could give the opportunity for the attention of the audience and that is legitimate content which still gives freedom to readers to judge on their own if it is true or it just sounds too good to be real.

3.5. „The data is essentially unreachable, unless the person to whom the data refers wishes to make an effort to reveal it“4

The flame which does not allows the Wikileaks fire to shut down is definitely a wish to fight against censorship and to keep establishing justice as something which should be saint, main and ubiquitous. The Wikileaks founder describes what is the power which leads it from the first day: „One day, I imagined, this technology would enable people to speak, even when powerful forces threatened to punish all speakers. The cypherpunks made this possible by arguing, from day one, against all treaties and laws that opposed the right to encrypt.“ (Assange, 2011, p.35) On the other hand it is not synchronized with interest of those who keep transparency in a box and that actually makes conflicts all the time. That is why it would be appropriate and convenient to find some compromise between sources as Wikileaks is and governments, intelligent agencies and other, who keep information of public interest at far distance from the audience. Otherwise there could be stated assumptions that big conflicts could be result of the battle for the information. The scholar Fenster introduces two options which could solve the problem or at least to stabilize the current situation. Because it is obvious that Wikileaks will not stop to seek for more and to publish it because it has reached the eleventh year of existence.

4 Assange, Julian (2011) The Unauthorised Autobiography (p. 35) 32

After being shocked by the complete disclosure, the governement could operate by two options. One is to change the public shift and the second one is to deal with it. So, the state should be careful and to follow democratic tools in terms to keep being alive, because otherwise Wikileaks and similar whistleblowing organizations could publish all of materials that exist and to completely damage the role of authorities to conspire and thus to exist. (Fenster, 2012) The other aspect of willingness which pushes Wikileaks to continue to find holes where information could leak is to give opportunity for the society to pay attention about things they were not aware before or they did not know how it is important or they had completely different incorrect notions about some issue. Jullian Assange explains it as an opportunity for authorities to command with people's thoughts and to form it as they wish. That is one more reason why Wikileaks is always “heated” to disclose more in terms to bound manipulations and to deform violation of freedom into the truth and transparency, which has been shown as accomplished goal: „The cypherpunk ethos allowed me to think about how best to oppose the efforts of oppressive bodies – governments, corporations, surveillance agencies – to extract data from vulnerable individuals. Regimes often rely on having control of the data, and they can hurt people or oppress them or silence them by means of such control.“ (Assange, 2011, p.35) Finally, if there would be occurred scenario that organizations as Wikileaks do not exist anymore, the balance or transparency would be severely damaged and there might be even worse consequence and that is that people could protest against it or that they could try to reach information in violent or illegal way. So, it could be that authorities are aware of it and that is why there is still balance among disclosures and hidden information.

3.6. „My first word was ‘Why?’ It was also my favourite“5

It is already described which common aims of tradional journalism and Wikileaks, which are objectivity and professional way of publishing without any interference of authorities or elities. However it does not mean that all of media would follow those basic journalistic principles. That automatically means that there is lack of independence in the editorial or it is just mere unprofessionalism in which media offices journalists just copy reports from others without checking information from the reliable sources. But here are some examples of newspapers which published Wikileaks disclosure at the very beginning of its foundation: „On the 28th November 2010, Wikileaks began releasing U.S. State Department diplomatic cables. The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, The Guardian and El Pais in co-operation

5 Assange, Julian (2011) The Unauthorised Autobiography (p. 13) 33 with Wikileaks published the first articles which revealed that over 250,000 confidential documents had been leaked to Wikileaks. During the same night the first 219 documents of the diplomatic cables were published on the Wikileaks website. According to Wikileaks, all cables will be published during the coming months. By the 4th December 2010 over 800 cables had been published.“ (Karhula, 2011, p.1) Citing Assange these examples represent common sense, which used to be the first principle of journalism in every country with a free press. (Assange, 2011) However, sometimes that does not mean that policy of some media house would be like that forever and that is why it is advisable to be careful always and to check dependability of that media in terms to avoid obstacles. But sometimes it is just not possible to be controlled. There is an example of the newspapers The Guardian which changed its way of (non)informing towards Wikileaks. So this is an example of incertainty that an ally could become an enemy just out of blue and unexpectedly. As Assange said The Guardian did not make a single story about threats that he could be killed by American right-wingers. But they used it as an opportunity to write an article against him and attacking him. (Assange, 2011) On the other hand there are some general involments of Wikileaks into journalism and its features and principals. The journalist Beckett tackled the relation of traditional and non-traditional journalistic features and examples. He explains it on the example that everyone could do journalism nowadays because of the Internet freedom especially thanks to social networks. He says that it should be related to Wikileaks as well and it should not be seen as a deviation. It is just a hybrid way of non-traditional journalism and that certainly we are going to face with it more often. (Vinter, 2011) The example which shows that Wikileaks gives more to media than it would be without it, that „bringing things into the light“ are surely Iraq War Logs: „In October 2010, Wikileaks released a package of almost 400,000 documents called the Iraq War Logs in coordination with major commercial media organizations. US officials confirmed that this was the largest leak of U.S. military secrets in history. The „war logs“ showed alleged evidence of torture that was ignored, and that there were more than 109,000 violent deaths between 2004 and 2009 including 66,081 civilians.“ (BBC, 2010) Relying on it the scholar Baack argues about that when, in 2010, Wikileaks was at its ‘peak’ with the release of the war logs and the ‘Cablegate’, there were lots of debates about its relationship with journalism. So he stands that the focus should not be on what is happening with journalism in terms of Wikileaks' and Panama Papers' disclosures but and if those are separate and independent journalistic institutions, but that is crucial what these organizations are creating. Hence, all of the others new or traditional media ought to develop their work to be good if not better. (Baack, 2016) 34

In general, any hesitations about that if Wikileaks makes any influence on „real“ journalism should be mitigated because Assange himself states that journalistic space is inevitable for Wikileaks and what is more it should be linked by stronger bonds. What is more he even estimates that in the future there might be a „Wikileaks buttom“ that could be placed on the websites of major news organizations. Additionally he gives arguments about traditionalistic way of logics of the organization which drives it to work. That is basic feature of „real“ journalism – serving the truth, taking infromation from the dark into the light. He even compares it with the silent motto of the Washington Post during Watergate and reveals a wish to have a similar way of partnership which would make the bond with traditional journalism to be even stronger. (Assange, 2011) It could be concluded that interference of whistleblowing in journalism is difficult to be controlled or to be simple or to be unvarieted. Firstly because today limits between traditional and new online media fluctuates and influences each other. Moreover, following certain points of view there are even questions if whistleblowing products are there to even create a new form of journalism. Besides everything it is not so important to clasify it. It is significant to know what does Wikileaks do with journalism and how does it influence to be better.

3.7. „From having fun to ending up wanting to change the world“6

It is always questionable if all of information that have been disclosed by Wikileaks would had ever been published if there was not this media organization. Simultaneously it could be the answer on a question if the society would ever face with some information without disclosed documents of Wikileaks. Besides Wikileaks, there are still some other whistleblowers who might have disclosed it if Wikileaks did not, as already mentioned Edward Snowden or the ProPublica which is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. (ProPublica, 2017) The founder of Wikileaks is more curious about that if there would be anything without the Internet. But above everything he claims that all of consequences and actions depend on that if we want to cause it. So he describes the Internet as a platform where the opportunity of publishing is vast regarding lack of borders which makes the content to be spread worldwide and its convenience of being for free and without any charges. However, that does not mean some special and that big form of liberty. It still depends on people if they want to seek for it or not. Nothing, not even the Internet, would provide it if the society is pasive and avoids to put effort into that battle. (Assange, 2011)

6 Assange, Julian (2011) The Unauthorised Autobiography (p. 37) 35

Thus, if we would leave the imagionary scenario behind and follow the real situations, there are surely a lot of various consequences which are there to make reactions to continue that manner of changing the world. For now does not matter that different governments want to cut down the work of Wikileaks in a lot of ways – lawful, concealed or by negative propaganda, it still depends on people if they would accept it or they would finally take the initiative and fight for their rights.

3.8. „I was under the greatest pressure of my life. I was being surveilled“7

Before analyzing the reactions of various governments and authorities about Wikileaks disclosures it makes sense that none of them could be delighted or that they could support it because it is contrary to their willingness to keep information far away from the audience. Being aware that revelation of information is constant, leading institutions of states are looking for means how to make it to be more complicated or to disenable it somehow by legal or forced manners. Encryption is one of the ways how to aggravate the access to the data. Assange recapitulates that at one moment goverments looked for making cryptography to be an act which would violate tha law. However, it would effect the society and authorities themselves use it when they need it. So, that is the way how governments understand Wikileaks – controlling technology and to manipulate it to be beneficial just for itself. But the government forgot about freedom issues. It would not be just because society would be affected by illegal and insurpportable belonging of information which should be public and Wikileaks has been fighting exactly for that. (Assange, 2011) Furthermore, even though there are chances for Wikileaks to be prosecuted, there are claims which strike how it would be harmful for American press and how journalist should support Wikileaks' content to be published instead of letting authorities to persecute it: „As the media look back on the Wikileaks cables’ wide-ranging impact on journalism this week, it’s important they also defend the idea behind Wikileaks. Because if they do not stand up for Wikileaks’ right to publish, in the end, it will only be harder to preserve the publication rights of mainstream organizations like the New York Times. The real casualty in a Wikileaks prosecution will not be Julian Assange; it will be the death of a free press and the First Amendment itself.“ (Timm, 2011) Ironicaly the same author adds that the Justice Department has been investigating Wikileaks for criminal violations for doing what other media organizations have been doing in the U.S. for centuries—publishing truthful information in the public interest. He stresses that at the same time Wikileaks did something extraordinary. In terms of that he quotes Salon’s Glenn Greenwald -

7 Assange, Julian (2011) The Unauthorised Autobiography (p. 92) 36

“Wikileaks easily produced more newsworthy scoops over the last year than every other media outlet combined.” Speaking about the other governmental jurisdiction which could be a huge obstacle for Wikileaks and not just for this platform, but for human rights, freedoms and privacy is going to be observed more analytically in the following lines. The point is about the Investigatory Powers Act of the United Kingdom. This Bill caused a lot of negative reactions among media workers, because this could mean that the government of the United Kingdom could legally oversee the online private data of the citizens and not just on its territory, but even out of the borders. Jim Killock, who is Executive Director of Open Rights Group, which campaigns for privacy and free speech, argues that this could be the most extreme surveillance law: “It includes state powers to intercept bulk communications and collect vast amounts of communications data and content. The security and law enforcement agencies - including government organizations such as HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) - can hack into devices of people in the UK. Under this law, the intelligence agencies can use bulk hacking powers to hack devices and networks outside the UK. They can also access and analyze entire databases, whether they are held by private companies or public organizations - even though they have admitted that most people on them will not be suspected of any crimes.” (Killock, 2016) Still the creator of Wikileaks keeps to be careful about all of environments where freedoms could be yielded because it is not so difficult to misuse it. So even though the Web gives all of means “to take a piece of information out of a cage” still it the biggest surveillance tool in the world. On one hand it is there to afford a free press, but on the other hand it gives the same opportinity to those who do not find benefits in the press freedom. (Assange, 2011) So, whistleblowing actions are not the only way of getting information does not matter of natual or state borders. Governments could hack as well! That issue sets more questions and it indicates even more about online insecurity, surveillance and violated privacy. Even though authorities should be those who protect information on the Internet from surveillance, there are situations when governments themselves are spying.

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3.9. „The Internet is the biggest surveillance tool in the world“8

Whistleblower protection cannot be effectively implemented without spreading awareness. Certain countries provide that the Ombudsman prepare and publish guidelines and periodic reports regarding public servants whistleblowing. “In the U.S, there are special programmes for awareness raising and training, especially in agencies that deal with public procurement, such as the Department of Defense. Its Whistleblower Program commands the Inspector General to supervise whistleblower protection and inform personnel of their rights through training. Its programme has significantly increased public awareness through articles and briefings to public servants.” (G20 Leaders, 2010, p. 24) In addition to it there is a department where is possible to be adviced and it is the Directorate for Whistleblowing and Transparency. There is also a Deputy Inspector General whose mission is to ensure that allegations of whistleblower reprisal are resolved in an objective and timely manner. Finally, through a Certification Programme the department has made efforts on promoting outreach, investigations and training as the three core methods for raising awareness. (G20 Leaders, 2010) After listing lawful instances which are there to advocate and protect acts of Wikileaks, it is advisable to try to implement it into the reality and to observe how those laws are protecting vaults and if they support it properly. The scholar Fenster argues that Wikileaks could be guarded in better conditions and circumstances: “Many advocates of transparency have not fully embraced Wikileaks. This is, in part, because the site provoked widespread outrage among elected officials and conservative commentators against unauthorized disclosures. It also inadvertently assisted legislative efforts to tighten control on classified information, as it helped Republican opponents to stall efforts to reform the Whistleblower Protection Act at the end of the 112th Congress, and it provoked a potentially overbroad proposal to extend criminal liability under the Espionage Act to sites like Wikileaks.” (Fenster, 2012, p. 770) On the other hand, Jullian Assange is the one who emphasized that the first thing which should be protected is freedom and human rights are those which are the most important than anything else. He gives details that too emotional and passionate attitude have been leading Wikileaks idea to protect freedom and right that the whole society shares. (Assange, 2011) That is why he draws closely what does Wikileaks fight for and how it ought to be regularly and how whistleblowers could be protected against unjustified accusations. So that they could be declared as people who deserve to be supported and not to be prosecuted. Further that the Internet

8 Assange, Julian (2011) The Unauthorised Autobiography (p. 82) 38 approach would be equally available for everyone. Very importantly that sources would not be victims but protected subjects. Finally that it would be journalistically and politically synhronized and that justice would be on the same side with the truthful government, independent journalists and well informed audience. (Assange, 2011) To sum up, despite the fact of regularities which are formally there to stand in front of a disclosing source, as Wikileaks is, it is not enough just to rely on those proclamations and laws, but to stay careful and keep eye on the public interest and to justify it in a factual and objective manner.

3.10. Potentials of Wikileaks and its influences on transparency

Following the assumption that Wikileaks makes some balance and calculates about revealed information when it would be published and how much information would be published, the deeper analysis shows that this is more than a hypothesis and that those particulars are really important when it comes up to disclosures. There are several reasons, from the capacity to process the amount and the content to technical issues. As it is already mentioned, Wikileaks is immense source of information which should manipulate carefully with the content and the published amount regarding to have the willing impact. The importance that documents bring in and the topics of the articles are not “light” and mostly are shocking or unexpected. What is more, the CIA's Grasshopper framework, a platform used to build customized malware payloads for Microsoft Windows operating systems (Wikileaks, 2017); Operation SOPHIA, the EU military intervention against "refugee boats" in Libya and the Mediterranean (Wikileaks, 2016); Hillary Clinton private email archive with the content of U.S. State Department (Wikileaks, 2017) - are just some of many topics which require more concentration and to dedicate some time to understand the background of a topic and to acquaint with delicate details. It is the content which is not the part of regular daily set of news and which elaboration demands patience with lack of “resting-brain topics”. That is why it is not possible to publish everything from once, but to organize the frequency and the informational amount which is bearable to be handled from once. Accordning to Fenster it means as well that the Wikileaks’ web page is not omnipotent but that there are some limitations. One of the reasons is that Wikileaks is “completely source-dependent” and it cannot work without it. What is more it requires checking if it is relevant and if it is truthful. Some immense leaks as war diaries are demand the huge investment of time to clarify its content. That is not the only thing which consumes time but working with mainstream news organizations is additional need. The same author argues further:

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“Meanwhile, it has been forced to wage numerous collateral battles: with the companies on whom it relies for document storage, servers, and donated funds; with governments in legal forums; with detractors and critics in the press; and with government entities and others who have attempted to take Wikileaks and its mirror sites down through denial-of-service attacks.” (Fenster, 2012, p. 768) Turning over the assumption that Wikileaks could be very important in times of crisis is debatable. During those periods it is always welcoming to react quickly, to alleviate, to regulate the situation and to solve the problem. However, even if forces of Wikileaks would find out some testimonies at the very beginning of some inconvenient period, it is still useless without double checking, editing and adjusting it for the audience. So, in the situations when fast reactions and feed backs are necessary, this kind of time-consuming procedures could be without some big effect. There are even statements that actually Wikileaks could cause completely opposite outcome than its mission is. So, does not matter if it was possible to revise the whole huge material for the short period, still there is a possibility that Wikileaks could be the reason of a crisis: “Strong statist positions have also appeared in the ethical theory literature. For instance, Somerville (2010) had argued that leaking is a wrong means, which is not outweighed by good ends, as well as arguing that it poses large risks such as global war.” (Karatzogianni, Robinson, 2014, p. 2709) However, if there is a situation that a period of crisis is very long and Wikileaks manages to launch some prosecuted materials, then there are big chances that this platform would make some influence on crisis and on the society which would be informed and that could be a trigger for balancing the situation. The example could be the Iraq and Afghan War Diaries published in 2010 which was during the war in the mentioned countries. Moving further, there is not the only threat for goals of the Wikileaks besides the possibility to cause some wide-range conflict. A big issues and an obstacle for this organization are attacks and attempts to interfere into its channels. Moreover, it is interesting that there are various countries which “would like to revenge by the similar weapon” – blocking. However, simultaneously it is the online battle and the better and more skilled IT and hacking experts could survive, defend and finally win. Going further into particulars of government manipulation in media towards Wikileaks could be actually present each day and could be used as a regular excuse and the main culprit. There is a video9 on Wikileaks Facebook page which is made out of the set of news where the Wikileaks is named as a Putin’s FSB (State security organization of Russia) (news on Fox Business),

9 https://www.facebook.com/wikileaks/videos/1305400646161711/ 40

“Wikileaks which is in arms of Russian intelligence” (breaking news on MSNBC), “Russian hacking” (Barack Obama’s press conference), “Wikileaks is not strong enough and that there is no good insight into the information” (James Clapper, Director of U.S. National Intelligence). Relying on the mentioned examples it is obviously that Wikileaks is the common target of manipulations in media on daily basis, but still it is important that there is evidence into the other side which makes the choice for people to search and to conclude which side is right.

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4. NEW PERCEPTIONS ON THE ISSUE OF WIKILEAKS

After posing the research problem, the object, the main interest of the paper and deep investigation towards constructing the theoretical frame, positing and the determination of crucial terms and “diving into the topic”, it is the moment to present which are new perspectives, if hypotheses are confirmed or denied and how this master’s thesis could contribute in scientific circles on the topic of whistleblowing, surveillance and the media organization Wikileaks. So, finally here ought to be reflected and interpreted results and the issues of the topic. Regarding to uncover all of consequences and potentials of this work, all of steps how it has been developing are going to be neatly described in this segment. Nevertheless here is going to be shown the aim of this work – solutions for research questions and benefits and flaws of whistleblowing. Starting from definitions of whistleblowing, which are given in lawful documents as the Law on Protection of Whistleblowers of the United States of America is, it is immediately obvious that it was not written in terms to protect whistleblowers of organizations as Wikileaks is. The reason lays in a fact that employees of different companies are those who want to speak out laud about some irregularities they were occurred on their job positions. Firstly, this law is not created “to be appropriate” for Wikileaks because it is not common kind of organization and secondly, because it is not convenient for a state which hides its documents to protect someone who takes it from it and reveals it. Even though it could seem as there is no any instance which could advocate for Wikileaks, it does not mean it is necessarily like that. This organization seeks for freedom and the public interest. Those are the basic rights in each constitution and it is the point of journalism. This means that Wikileaks tries to establish fundamental rights which should be ubiquitous, but actually are not, although people think they live in very democratic epoch. At that point we are facing that ethical clash, which is the purpose of this paper to be revealed if it is something which should be penalized and disreputable or it is actually something which is beneficial and justified. The vivid example that Julian Assange gave about a watch and time explaining that it is not the same kind of ownership of something which is material and a piece of information and that “looking at someone’s watch” does not mean that it is robbery, but that person wants to know what time it is. Additionally, that could clarify that image of illegal access to government’s data. That would not be named as something violent and unjust if those same authorities did not declare it is something “lawless” in terms to represent their acts as sacrificial objects. 42

Furthermore, even justification that privacy rights are affected would be ridiculous and ironical because something that government is in charge of is public and it belongs to citizens. What is more it is vice versa. It is about the privacy of an individual who could be surveilled by authorities. Jullian Assange elaborates on this topic commenting if all transparency would be good or bad. That is why he clarifies as well how it should be observed the issue of total privacy. Assange agrees that privacy is necessary and that is rather good than bad. He says that he has always fought for the privacy of people. The thing he would always be against is secrecy by institutions which is different from privacy and which is harmful for the society because it suffers of the lack of transparent information. (Assange, 2011) On the other hand, this could be slippery slope example in the case if transparency would be total thanks to Wikileaks or some other disclosure source because that means that authorities would not govern anything and their function would be pointless and it could be easily transformed into complete anarchy. What is more, there is even the third scenario – too much transparency thanks to Wikileaks could cause big conflict between leading forces of states and leaking points and the victim could be the society, which would produce completely opposite effect than it was aimed. However, the leader of Wikileaks does not observe it from that angle but he stays consistent claiming that everything belongs to the public and that everything depends on it: “My friend John Pilger got it right when he said that it is not Wikileaks the United States government is afraid of, and it is not Julian Assange that they are afraid of. What does it matter what I know? What does it matter what Wikileaks knows? It matters not at all. What matters is what you know. This is all about you.” (Assange, 2011, p. 56) So, it could be concluded that the whole story about Wikileaks, freedom for information and freedom of information is the huge irony, because the public interest is the core of the First Amendment and all of constitutes of states who declare democracy as the leading ideology. That means that everything is already declared and arranged by all of law instances, but still it is not implemented as it should be. The reason why everything is covered by ironic layer is that Wikileaks and the other ways of disclosures should not exist at all and it is not ought to be something which is beneath a huge question mark in terms of morality, but it is supposed to be the obligation of authorities and announcing sources to inform the whole globe about information that belong to them.

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4.1.Whistleblowing viruses

After analyzing consequences of Wikileaks’ whistleblowing and whistleblowing in general, it is mentioned that retaliation moments come as something spontaneous and something which goes after a whistle, because of “relieving” something that initially was not meant to be public even though it must be. Concretely there were mentioned examples of various states which blocked flow of Wikileaks information towards libraries and educational hubs which is the first sign of revenge. Even though it is debatable if Assange is not free reasonably or not, it could be as well one more sign of revenge which would push him to stop with disclosures. “British police and intelligence have kept the embassy under close surveillance since Ecuador granted asylum in June 2012 to prevent Assange’s extradition to Sweden for questioning about a sexual assault accusation. The South American country accepts the Wikileaks leader’s argument that the Swedish extradition request was a ruse aimed at eventually getting him into U.S. jurisdiction, where he said he would face political persecution and mistreatment similar to that suffered by whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Since then, he has not left the building, which has given him less scope for movement than that of many convicted prisoners.” (The Guardian, 2017) According to a BBC article Chealsea Manning – her turbulent life Chelsea Manning, who was born as Bradley Manning worked as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army and was given access to a large amount of highly sensitive information. And her personal life appears to have hit a downward spiral after she was posted to Iraq in 2009. (BBC, 2017) Going further into details it could be even said that journalism should be enough because all of forces which drive Wikileaks to work are the same as journalistic, however it seems as it is not applicable in reality. It could be new opened chapter for some new thesis if today exist independent media. If that would be true, then it means that a source as Wikileaks is, were really necessary. On the other hand, even if there would be objective and professional media offices without any influences, it is questionable if there would be skills of employees to reach information the same way as Wikileaks does, because it is still highly skilled manner of entering codes and “unlocking public-interest treasure”. Drawing conclusion from these assumptions it would be satisfactory if media would just report correctly about Wikileaks and how it really is. That would make the picture about it to be clearer. However, in practice it is not like that always because of “copy-paste” journalism without deeper analysis, double checking and seeking for reliable sources, there are programs which are just 44 mere conveyance of words of governing figures who would affect their authority if they would support Wikileaks.

4.2.Shooting the messenger

After theoretical and analytical segments of whistleblowing issues related to the media organization Wikileaks, two features have shown up. Besides the negative, but very expected one, which is retaliation, there is the other one which could be its “enemy”. The initiative should be a try to diminish revenge aspect, but it is doubtful if it is possible. Since now it has been occurred that none of sources, which kept hidden documents, would ignore disclosure of the information. All of them did something against Wikileaks rather putting it on a black list or blocking its address. So, what could be possible in terms to cut the revenge down? If the total transparency or the complete democracy are not so convenient for governments, still the justice should be the one which is its interest. It would be the same field where authorities and Wikileaks could overlap and which would be beneficial for the society. Taking into consideration that disclosures of Wikileaks are always firstly processed, not revealed in a raw form, it could be presented for some government as an opportunity to publish it itself in terms to do its job properly. Wikileaks could be just reminder and not a victim. It might be a chance for a messenger to be “alive” and not shot. That second whistleblowing feature - the collectivism could be the one which would help in the process of bringing disclosures closer to the governments. If minds of society would be broaden and if the wish for justice and transparent information would be present, then the pressure on authoritiest could be stronger and it would help Wikileaks to break and to reveal the data. This is not possible to happen in a short period. Firstly, Wikileaks has to gain the confidence of the audience. According to its existance of more than ten years and the presence in traditional media it should be on a good way to accomplish it. However, there are sources which inform negatively about information which could be found on Wikileaks website, which has been constructing a big obstacle. Still, thanks to the Internet which is not dependable on just the official media, it is possible to spread the spirit which would produce the collectivism and eagerness of more individuals to seek for the transparent and objective media without any fears if there is still some latent data.

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4.3. Journalistic-feature enigma

Through the whole analysis on the Wikileaks issue in this paper, there have been numerous question about journalistic role of this media platform and not just that, but how has Wikileaks influenced on journalism. Even though there are a lot of various points of views and stated arguments on this topic, still the fact is that journalism is not independent discipline anymore. Currently it is not possible anymore to keep journalism just in newsrooms, in pens of reporters and on a dictaphone. Journalism does not belong anymore just to reporters and editors. Today anybody who has a piece of information and where he could reveal it actually has touch with journalism. One of the simpliest examples is citizen journalism which gives an opportunity for an eyewitness who is at an event, a happening or an occasion, to capture it by video or photo option by his cellphone and to forward it to some media house or simply to post it on the Internet. On the website of the lifelong learning page ThroughtCo. citizen journalism is described this way: “Put very simply, citizen journalism is when private individuals do essentially what professional reporters do - report information. That information can take many forms, from a podcast editorial to a report about a city council meeting on a blog. It can include text, pictures, audio and video. But it's basically all about communicating information of some kind.” (ThroughtCo, 2016) That easy way to publish and to get information makes journalism to be wider than it has been ever before. What is more, journalists are the first people who inform themselves by the Internet and primary by social media. But, what is the thing which makes Wikileaks to be analyzed if it is a part of journalism or not? The first association is usually daily journalism and that is difficult to be a main domain description of Wikileaks reports. However, that is not the only way how to disclose a piece of information. Moreover, it is not necessarily to “invent” a new type of journalism in terms to classify whistleblowing somewhere. The basic aims of these two spheres are completely equal – publishing the truth. So it could mean that whistleblowing is there to do the job as it is supposed to be without any means of censorship. What is more, it might be that data journalism would not be so exploited without Wikileaks and it is crucial for getting information, especially during investigative-journalism disclosures. Additionally, it makes journalists to be less lazy in terms of looking for a piece of information, because it offers how to reach willing detail without the closest and most common sources. Digging deeper and receiving information from some new sides, could just make a potential article or some other form of news to be even better. 46

Speaking about investigative journalism and Wikileaks impact to embed data journalism manipulation in newsrooms makes it to be very beneficial and it saves a lot of significant time. All of investigative stories are time consuming, but requesting information through a freedom of information law makes it to be even longer because of waiting on answers from institutions. Thanks to datasets and knowledge how to manipulate in a handy way with it, provides some extra time for an investigation which is very significant for journalists. Going further in drawing conclusion about Wikileaks-journalism relation, it is important to underline that Wikileaks might not exist without traditional media, because its big files of a lot of mostly complicate information are not attractive for anyone. Today people look for instant, quick and short, but informative materials. Thanks to media and its edition of Wikileaks content and the presentation with more details in a manner understandable for everyone, this disclosure hub gains more attention of the public than on its own. However the way how newsroom report about Wikileaks is never a guarantee that certain media would inform objectively all the time. Already elaborated example of The Guardian represented exactly this kind of issue. That is why the idea of having Wikileaks button, that Assange has suggested, would not be bad at all. Firstly because it would warrant loyalty and additionally, it would motivate the source and Wikileaks to work even more.

4.4. Wikileaks resource of consumption

Beside “standard” actuators which develop Wikileaks content, there are actually some which initially might have not been planned, but it occcured and became one more force which drives this organization and protects it from shutting down. It may sound too extraordinary but actually the willingness for justice is the one which activates more and more fields to work and be organized in a better way. It has been already mentioned that some media centres do not do their work properly and they let their editorial to be manipulated by a government or some other influential source. Simultaneously they do not pay attention or they just silently keep closing their eyes on the sense of their profession. They just let it be dependent on some others interests against the truth and the professional way of reporting. So this means that instead of the fact that Wikileaks philosophy was just concentrated to reveal documents that are important for society, it happened that it influences on traditional media as well. Unfortuantely, it just reminds reporting profession of its basic postulates, but still it is better than to have much more newsrooms where censorship is present.

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Nevertheless, this should not stop here. It could be spread on the judicature. In fact it would be the huge goal if whistleblowing would activate judges and courts to make their systems to work according their oath. Finally, it could “radiate” till other systems does not matter of the size and structure and it could create a better society. In that case whistleblowing could extinct slowly and leave everything to function as it is supposed to. Then there would not be any needs to distinguish types of whistleblowing or to classify it. However, it is idealistic scenario and chances are really minimal for something like that. But since eagerness exists to change the world and to give it all of conditions to be better, the opportunity to live in a more justice environment are still manageable.

4.5. Fight for the right

Albeit there have been numerous expectations of Wikileaks, especially those pompous ones of changing the world, there are analysis of hypotheses “what it could be if it would be” in terms of Wikileaks’ disclosures. Hence it is really difficult to forecast if everything would be the same or different. The most important is that revealing of information exists and that the willingness to be continued is still present. However, that is not the only factor in this procedure. External factors as governments’ interventions could be the enormous obstacle. The first one could be the rising secrecy of a government. From this perspective even this should not be such a serious problem because Wikileaks has shown as capable to enter into data despite various codes and encrypts. Meanwhile there are other jeopardies which could affect Wikileaks. Any kind of prosecution with the ending which is inconvenient for the organization could be decisive. But still, even if it would end up with destroying of Wikileaks or if Jullian Assnage would be a casuality or someone else it were not such a disaster as the death of free press or the First Amendment would be. Following the tense situation between two fires – secrecy and disclosure, it is needed to be objective and to avoid giving omnipotence just for one side. Even though it is not surpring that Wikileaks could be accussed for lives of American soldiers and of their partners in Iraq and Afghanistan, because of videos and data of Iraq and Afghan war logs, it is necessarily to stress that it is the war and with that material or without it still there would be American witnesses and it is nothing surprising. Wikileaks is not guilty for wasted bullets and weapons, so it is just a mere excuse to defocus its fault towards anything else. The second accusation that atributes Wikileaks is that it affect diplomatic relations between the United States of America and other nations. It is truth that it is not beneficial for the authorities and international relations, but it is not culpability of Wikileaks but of the government who has jeopardized those bonds and did something that is not suitable for the other side. 48

The third negative label which goes to Wikileaks is that it provides „logged“ flow of information among units of the military of U.S, intelligence agencies and the State Department. Following the fact that there have been exchanged materials which should be out of that triagle and which are ought to be in ether and people could be aware of it, then there is nothing so negative in terms of public interest which is the most important. The other aspect which could cause problems for Wikileaks’ existence and its goals is the potential British law - the Investigatory Powers Act. This document has chances to be the official and lawful act which would give the opportunity for the police and the goverment to literally and legally monitor the people and to steal their privacy. Even though it seems like the lost battle and that there is anything to do against it, still it is possible to have a referendum and to prevent it from being valid and in effect. All in all, waking up the awarness of the society that the acts of goverments do not have necessarily to be right and justice and that people should not rely on it completely and faithfully. When that mission reached its goal then there would not be any reasons to explain which information is the truth and which is mere manipulation eagering to wash guilt from its unjustice actions. Besides positive features of Wikileaks and its responsibility to push the justice to be at the right place and to be accessible to everyone, there have been occured a few particulars which could completely get the opposite result than its mission is. Those are its slow character because of the huge informational ammount which has to obeserved and adjusted for the audience. Unfortunately that could be useful but when it is already late and when a crisis already happen and when there were needed quick reactions. Finally the worst outcome could be the global conflict among different nations or between those who disclose and other who surveille. That is why it is beneficial that Wikileaks takes care of transparency balance and does not reveal all of information from once but its find appropriate moments when exactly to devote to a particular topic.

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5. CONCLUSION

1) Whistleblowing has been shown as a contemporary method to disclose vast amout of files that would not be revealed unless the documents had been taken by illegal manner from a government or some other institution of authorities. This could present a revolution in media sphere because anything similar has not occured ever before even in the field of investigative journalism. Even the grand example that journalistic profession is proud of – the affere Watergate could not be compared. The reason is that today‘s form of whistleblowing exists thanks to the Internet and it features like it is to be fast and to be capable to find wholes and to leak a desired piece of information. The techology is the one which afforded this kind of access to the willing datasets. However, whistleblowing produces the clash which exists among ethical dilemmas and journalistic disclosures. During the analysis in this paper it has been concluded that the public interest stands among everything and that is the bigger “sin” if a piece of information, which people should be aware of, is hidden from them than if it is disclosed by uncovering governmental datasets without authorities approval. Finally, one of the basic human rights are freedom of speech and press an in terms of that everything else which does not fit into that “mold” has to be punished. That is why, whistleblowing is keen on broadening minds and focusing the awareness of the audience to distinguish on their own which information is true and which is biased. It makes the goal of whistlebloweres to be even wider and to influence, actually to remind editorial of independed journalism without any institutional manipulations. 2) Whistleblowing does not mean that the wish for justice society and for the public interest had not existed before. One of the most significant whistleblowing organizations – Wikileaks has proved that it is established on the same basic postulates as journalism is – professional, objective and independent way of reporting in terms to satisfied human rights and interest. Relying on these principles Wikileaks and other whistleblowing sources as Panama Papers, ProPublica and Edward Snowden are have acknowledged that their work is nothing extraordinary but just fight for the truth. Regarding it whistleblowing has managed to infiltrate into daily, data, scientific, investigative journalism and to enhance it in terms of manipulation with data and to alleviate its work avoiding requests towards laws of freedom of information which are time consuming when it comes up to waiting for answers. Additionally, whistleblowing has managed to cut down the laziness of reporters who practice “copy-paste” journalism and those who ask for statements of the closest and always the same sources.

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3) Besides laws, bills and acts that could protect whistleblowers, it has been analysed that people's awareness about the importance of being informed and their wish to seek for it is the most significant and that represents the main force of disclosing the information of the public interest. So, the First Amendment and the Law on Protection of Whistleblowers do not have a lot of impact because the American government still blames Wikileaks for disclosures and violation of its data even though it is paradoxical. The paradox lays in that the government should publish that information and that ought to support everything and everyone who fight for the truth. Even though the British Investigatory Powers Bill which has pretty certain chances to become a regular law should not present a threat. Albeit it could be the biggest enemie of human rights about privacy and that could afford opportunities for authorities to oversee all of private information of individuals which exist on the Internet. However this regulation still has chances to be oppressed by a referendum just if citizens would be wise enough to fight for it. The collectivism which whistleblowing produces could help it because it would not affect just inhabitants of the United Kingdom, but even further. 4) Finally the biggest irony of whistleblowing efforts on the instance of Wikileaks is that it could cause severe conflicts among different cultures and states if authorities keep being informed objectively. The reason is that hidden information is latent exactly because of interests of governments to show in a better light than their activities are. Simultaneously those political movements would be transparent if it was in the field of the interest of the both sides. What is more, the assumption that Wikileaks could have the important role in times of crises unfortunately is not affirmative completely. That is because of the pace of its checking of the information and adjustment for the audience. It does not correspond to the need to spread news very quickly during alarming situations. That could lead the disclosures till elaboration of the importance of its existence. The reason is that it could be questionable why it is important now if it already passed. Although in such a case was not possible to react on time and to take a chance to correct the irregularity, but still it could be an opportunity to prevent something which could violate rights and laws.

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LITERATURE

1. Assange, J. (2011) The Unauthorised Autobiography, Canongate Books 2. Fenster, M. (2012) Disclosure’s Effects: Wikileaks and Transparency, The University of Florida, Levin College of Law https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=8061011240290251160840010000770260770 58008019084044001109004119007113070072071110075009122054031122120108117012 08107909810200100808504603808109711708506811611409802107906203108111209400 2070005082102022086083079003029068077093071067088099091028087124&EXT=pdf (18th April 2017) 3. Karhula, P. (2011) What is the effect of WikiLeaks for Freedom of Information?, The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions https://www.ifla.org/publications/what-is-the-effect-of-wikileaks-for-freedom-of- information (13th April 2017) 4. McNair, B. (2012) Wikileaks, Journalism and the Consequences of Chaos, Media International Australia

Academic articles

5. Baack, S. (2016) What big data leaks tell us about the future of journalism - and its past, Internet Policy Review https://policyreview.info/articles/news/what-big-data-leaks-tell-us-about-future-journalism- and-its-past/413 (20th April 2017) 6. Dungan, J., Waytz, A., Young, L. (2015) The psychology of whistleblowing, Science Direct http://moralitylab.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/DunganWaytzYoung_2015.pdf (26th April 2017) 7. Masnick, M. (2010) The US's Reaction To Wikileaks Is Doing A Lot More Harm Than The Leaks Themselves, TechDirt https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101213/01094312253/uss-reaction-to-wikileaks-is- doing-lot-more-harm-than-leaks-themselves.shtml (21st April 2017)

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8. Timm, T. (2011) Cablegate One Year Later: How WikiLeaks Has Influenced Foreign Policy, Journalism, and the First Amendment, Electronic Frontier Foundation https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/11/cablegate-one-year-later-how-wikileaks-has- influenced-foreign-policy-journalism (14th April 2017) 9. Weil, V. (2012) Whistleblowing: What Have We Learned Since the Challenger?, Illinois Institute Of Technology https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/ethics-resources/other-resources/whistleblowing- what-have-we-learned-challenger (26th April 2017)

Laws

10. House of Lords, House of Commons, Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill (2016) The report of Draft Investigatory Powers Bill https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt201516/jtselect/jtinvpowers/93/93.pdf (18th April 2017) 11. Draft Law on Protection of Whistleblowers https://www.google.rs/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8& ved=0ahUKEwjcjtPtiL3TAhUKXRoKHY1IAZ0QFgg1MAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww. mpravde.gov.rs%2Ffiles%2FREV.%2520Draft%2520Law%2520on%2520Protection%2520 of%2520Whistleblowers%2520EDITED%252015.01.2014.doc&usg=AFQjCNFGtDvnic1T 7-iA2u8YV8wd8bNRUQ&sig2=ifcfrZ6R_HZNEnc9AFgl3A (24th April 2017) 12. The Parlament of the United Kingdom http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/investigatorypowers.html (25th April 2017)

Academic Journals

13. Karatzogianni, R. (2014) Digital Prometheus: WikiLeaks, the State–Network Dichotomy, and the Antinomies of Academic Reason, International Journal of Communication 8 http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/2879/1234 (25th April 2017) 14. Michener, G. (2011) FOI Laws Around the World 53

http://gregmichener.com/11_22.2_Michener_pp_145-159-Journal_of_Democracy.pdf (13th April 2017)

Online articles and other sources

15. Encyclopedia.com, Dictionary of American History, http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/united-states-and-canada/us-history/watergate-affair (13th April 2017) 16. Casnig J.D. (2003), The Adventures of Sci-Phi Pilot http://knowgramming.com/Onion.htm (14th April 2017) 17. ProPublica https://www.propublica.org/about/ (25th April 2017) 18. The Courage Foundation Free Snowden https://edwardsnowden.com/ (13th April 2017) 19. The Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers - Harry Ransom Center http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/woodstein/ (30th April 2017) 20. Titelman, Gregory Y. (2000) Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, Random House http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/3/messages/520.html (28th April 2017) 21. Vinter, H. (2011) Charlie Beckett: WikiLeaks symptomatic of a trend that's going to accelerate, World Assosiation of Newspapers and News Publishers http://www.editorsweblog.org/2011/09/21/charlie-beckett-wikileaks-symptomatic-of-a- trend-thats-going-to-accelerate (29th April 2017) 22. Wikileaks https://wikileaks.org/What-is-Wikileaks.html (13th April 2017)

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Newspapers

23. Guardian U.S. https://www.theguardian.com/profile/trevor-timm (14th April 2017)

Television

24. BBC, Chelsea Manning - her turbulent life (17th January 2017) http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-11874276 (1st May 2017) 25. BBC. Wikileaks: Iraq war logs 'reveal truth about conflict. BBC News (bbc.co.uk), 23rd October 2010 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11612731 (28th April 2017) 26. Killock, J. (2016) The IP Act: UK's most extreme surveillance law, Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/12/ip-act-uk-extreme-surveillance-law- 161201141317587.html (25th April 2016) 27. ThoughtCo (2016) What is citizen journalism? https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-citizen-journalism-2073663 (13th May 2017) 28. TV station History, Pentagon Papers http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/pentagon-papers (29th April 2017)

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