1st Draft of Argumentative Paragraphs

Grace Patricia / 11409034

The whole issue surrounding Wikileaks has become one of the most contentious issues
at present. Heroes to some, villains to others, WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange
highlight divisions over data security and show the tech-fuelled information revolution is
outpacing debate over its use-Reuters. WikiLeaks is a non-profit website that posts formerly
secret documents online in what its members say is the pursuit of transparency and
accountability. The founder, Julian Assange, sees himself as an informant activist whose main
goal is to get information into the public domain. Since 2007 WikiLeaks has posted thousands
of documents on the internet which are very sensitive and confidential, and the result of these
actions are many countries such; United States and France, merit to ban WikiLeaks. However,
we have to admit that WikiLeaks has brought many advantages for the society as transparency,
freedom of speech, and new journalistic manifestation.

The first thing is that WikiLeaks brings information into public‟s light so everything will
be more transparent. We as the citizen of a country know the information and news about what
is going on in our own country and abroad, not only from the media (TV, internet, radio,
magazine, etc.) but also from government partnered with them. But, do you think that what we
have already heard or seen as a truth? We may think that news as absolute truth or just a mask
hiding speculation behind. WikiLeaks plays important part in order to spread out the data to
the public, for example it describes the U.S. military's conduct of the war in Afghanistan, from
a military source and posted them on the internet. The release of this confidential information
sparked both of praise and criticism. From the government officials, they believe that the data
published by WikiLeaks may endanger US army and their Afghan allies. Moreover, they
emphasize that the data must be protected from the public for the national security‟s sake. The
reaction of government might lead into prejudices about the reality in the war itself, hence
public‟s opinion would question the validity of news or data that government has published.
Basically, the existence of WikiLeaks is a good thing, especially for the public. As journalism
ethics expert Stephen Ward, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of
the book Global Journalism Ethics thinks that WikiLeaks should not be banned and keep
publishing the leak documents. "I'm all in favor of bringing this information into the public
light," Ward says in a phone interview. "I just hope we can do it in a responsible way."
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Next, WikiLeaks is a symbol of freedom of speech representing in many countries. In a

free society we have the right to know the truth. WikiLeaks having the organization motto of
“principled leaking” touches a very important point in terms of voicing what is not voiced.
WikiLeaks is not a powerful organization in contrary; it is just a place on the internet for whistle
blower to share info. The people of the world deserve to know the truth; governments will not
tell us the whole truth. In terms of freedom of speech, it does not only we free to show up our
mind, but also try to reveal anything behind it. Although government has already given this
right, only they have certain „limitation‟ of what we deserve to know or not. For the pro-
democracy, Julian Assange with his WikiLeaks is a hero, a freedom fighter, a speaker of truth
to power, but to the government he is a traitor, a terrorist, and a thief who has to be vanished.
The existence of WikiLeaks is a good thing since we can be in favor of democracy. However at
the same, just because something can be published does not mean it should be. Privacy is not
the same as "secretive" or "clandestine" or "obfuscating." As a society, we benefit from the
internet's unrivaled ability to blast infinite information freely. But that ability does not mean
everything ought to be shared. Sometimes the things have to be kept hiding in order to make
the better situation and condition. Basically, the benefit of this freedom is we know the truth,
even if it is ugly, in order to inform the citizens what the reality going on. So, if the government
is doing something wrong there will be a less chance for the government to keep it a secret, and
make them to be responsible of what they have done.

The most crucial contribution of WikiLeaks to the society is new journalism‟s

manifestation. WikiLeaks is a responsible journalist organization which reports news - just not
the official government version of news - like any other responsible news organization. “It is a
new manifestation of the same journalistic process that needs “people to leak and people to dig
and people to consume and explain, and people who care enough to find the documents and
bring them to light,” said Mike Sager, a respected writer for Esquire, Rolling Stone and The
Washington Post. Furthermore, WikiLeaks provide different outlook towards reality. It
provides materials with having aside that is really dissimilar with other media. We are put in
front of our own perspective, so we have our own side without any influence from others.
Meanwhile according to Thiessen, who served as a speechwriter for U.S. President George W.
Bush, views WikiLeaks as criminal enterprise. He is of the opinion that WikiLeaks‟ ethics are
simply nonexistent. WikiLeaks‟ collection and publication of confidential military data
“arguably constitute material support for terrorism,” he said. He believes the administration of
President Barack Obama not only has the right, but the responsibility to track down founder
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and spokesman Julian Assange and throw him in prison; then shut down his entire
organization. However, WikiLeaks is the global watchdog for every government‟s actions and it
can be considered as media that tells us the hidden truth. As Jemima Khan, a prominent UK
journalist says "If WikiLeaks is a terrorist organization, as New York congressman Pete King
stated, and if its founder, Julian Assange, is prosecuted for espionage, the future of investigative
journalism everywhere is in jeopardy, as is our right as citizens to be told the truth."

Reactions to the leak and WikiLeaks' role in the process have been largely divided in
two, with anger and fear on one side and support and praise on the other. WikiLeaks makes
people to be more aware to the surrounding, especially to their country‟s diplomacy. It is not
only brings the truth to the public‟s lights but also offer new point of view. No one, including
government should be afraid if there is no wrongness that has be done. I, as the world‟s citizen,
feel responsible to spread out the truth since I think it is ethically permissible to publish
information even it will break up certain rule, just for the public‟s sake.