Wikileaks: deadly secrets

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Image: GonchoA / flickr

10 October 2010The Wikileaks'  'Afghan War Diary' scandal ultimately demonstrates the strengths of established media, reports Craig Butt in Quarterly Access.

Wikileaks’ most recent leak is its biggest yet - over 75,000 secret U.S. military reports from between 2004 and 2009 which serve as a record of how the war in Afghanistan has been unfolding. The leak, dubbed the “Afghan War Diary”, is the biggest of its kind in US history. With no established media organisation achieving a comparable scoop, it has been hailed as a triumph of new media over old.

Yet the way this explosive leak was released actually showed some of the strengths of old media, as Wikileaks eschewed crowd-sourcing, relied on established media to carry its message, failed to effectively challenge narratives surrounding the war and harmed its own credibility with human rights organisations.

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Image: GonchoA / flickr

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