Posted on August 9th, 2010
A torch bearer for free content cause, Wikileak is striving hard to alter freedom of information law all over Europe to justify its open info agenda, but its own legal position remains ambiguous.
Iceland has been the base of operation for Wikileak, but since then, it has expanded its horizons and extended the length of operations to Sweden. Associated press was told about its servers on condition that exact location would be a secret. The enigmatic website discloses brief details about its setup, and declares “servers are scattered over numerous international locations and do not maintain logs. Hence there is no way to predict the size of the logs”.
US government officials turned their wrath and fury towards Wikileak when it made public more than 76,900 confidential military and other documents; it typically exposed raw intelligence findings from Afghanistan on its website on July 25.
Top US officials were in a state of share panic and rage, and they vehemently protested and stated that the publication of these documents puts the lives of Afghan informants and US troops at jeopardy, but Wikileak paid no heed and the documents are still available online.
Mikael Viborg, proprietor of Swedish web-hosting company named PRQ while talking to associated press said “When you look at the legal situation it’s hard to see that Swedish authorities can tell us to do anything, legally,”. Viborg declared that the Swedish authorities haven’t approached him to take down the content, but if such instructions are issued he will not comply.
“They can ask us to do it out of goodwill, but I can tell you right now that we won’t oblige.”
Julian Assange on Friday exposed his site’s association to Swedish web hosting company which has piled on unsavory reputation for hosting file sharing site, The Pirate Bay. However, Swedish experts diverge on the level of security Wikileak enjoys in Sweden.
Swedish constitution contains specific rules that offer source protection and forbids individuals and governments alike from prying about a journalist sources. But, there’s a catch, the law is only applicable to websites and magazines which have procured special publishing license providing them legitimate constitutional defense, and Wikileak has yet to obtain the necessary paperwork, clarifies Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan.
Håkan Rustand deputy Chancellor of Justice, told the newspapers “To my mind, it is too simple to claim that all Wikileaks sources are totally protected in Sweden,”
Meanwhile, Assange continues to strive to reformulate the freedom of information law across Europe, he assisted in designing law that was supported by Iceland’s assembly. This law would mean iron clad safety to media sources.
According to AFP, the main objective of IMMI or Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, “aims to create an offshore safe haven for information, to add to transparency.” Wikileaks grabbed the attention of international media and the world community alike when in April it exposed a video of a US apache helicopter strike in Iraq’s city Baghdad. The strike was responsible for the death of two personnel of Reuters news agency and few civilians.