WikiLeaks

Julian Assange’s national security case has transcended the trials of a garden-variety nightmare for politically inconvenient whistleblowers.

Alan Sunderland, ABC’s editorial director, was dismissive of the great and powerful Senate under questioning at the estimates hearing, telling Senator Kristina Keneally that “with the greatest of respect, I’m not particularly interested in proving to the Senate” that their version of events that caused so much security concern in Canberra was true.

The most recent CIA leak, via Wikileaks, shows governments must consider the ethical questions that drive staff to leak classified information. Do citizens have an absolute right to be informed?

The release of CIA hacking documents revealing widespread use of internet devices to spy on foreign targets has major implications for Australian government agencies and enterprises that have until now relied on Australia’s low local threat environment.

Heightened scrutiny of journalists metadata may mean public servants, who have limited whistleblower protections, will go straight to the internet. Their public-interest disclosures won’t receive cautious scrutiny prior to publication, possibly putting lives at risk.