Skip to main content

WikiLeaks, National Security and Cosmopolitan Ethics

  • Chapter
Ethics of Media

Abstract

On Tuesday 22 November 2010, New York Times editor Bill Keller attended a tense meeting with national security advisors in Washington. (Keller 2011: 5). During the same week, his counterpart at the Guardian newspaper in London, Alan Rusbridger, met with UK government officials and representatives of the US government. The discussions focused on the security implications of plans to publish news stories selected from a cache of more than 250,000 secret cables that whistle-blower website WikiLeaks had received from an anonymous source. Would publication lead to persecution of US informants and activists operating in authoritarian countries? Would frontline troops be placed in immediate danger by the release of their position, equipment or plans? Both journalists and government representatives were concerned that making the information public could compromise the security of diplomatic sources, agents and interests.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Bibliography

  • Alexy, R. (2002) A Theory of Constitutional Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barendt, E. (2005) Freedom of Speech, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beckett, C. and Ball, J. (2012) WikiLeaks. News in the Networked Era. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benkler, Y. (2011) ‘A Free Irresponsible Press, Wikileaks and the Battle for the Soul of the Networked Fourth Estate’, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review: 19. Available at: http://www.benkler.org/Benkler_Wikileaks_current.pdf.

  • Castendyck, O., Dommering, E. and Scheuer, A. (2008) European Media Law. Netherland: Kluwer Law International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chouliaraki, Lilie (2008) The media as moral education: mediation and action. Media, culture & society, 30 (6). pp. 831–852.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clayton, R. and Tomlinson, H. (2009) The Law of Human Rights, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Couldry, N. (2010) ‘Media Ethics, Media Justice’, in Ward, S. and Wasserman, H. (eds) Media Ethics Beyond Borders. A Global Perspective. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Couldry, N. (2012) Media, Society, World. Social Theory and Digital Media Practice. Polity, Cambridge. Chapter 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deibert, R., Palfrey, J., Rohozinski, R. and Zittrain, J. (2010) Access Controlled. The Shaping of Power, Rights and Rule in Cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Domscheit-Berg, D. (2011) Inside Wikileaks. My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website. London: Jonathan Cape.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (2006) ‘The Public Sphere’, Theory, Culture and Society 23(2–3): 607–616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (2007) ‘The Construction of a Transnational Public: Prerequisites for Democratic Governance in a Transnationalising Society’, in Sala, V. and Ruzza, C. (eds) Governance and Civil Society in the European Union, Exploring Policy Issues, vol 2, 7–30. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldsmith, J. and Wu, T. (2006) Who Controls the Internet. Illusions of a Borderless World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1996). Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy, W. Rehg (trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hafez, K. (2002) ‘Journalism Ethics Revisited: A Comparison of Ethics Codes in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Muslim Asia’. Political Communication (19): 225–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, J, and Woods, L. (2007) European Broadcasting Law and Policy. Cambridge Studies in European Law and Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Held, D. (2010) Cosmopolitanism. Ideals and Realities. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herrscher, R. (2002) ‘A Universal Code of Journalism Ethics: Problems, Limitations, and Proposals’, Journal of Mass Media Ethics 17(4): 277–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, B. (2011) Open Secrets. Wikileaks, War and American Diplomacy. New York: The New York Times.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leigh, D. and Harding, L. (2011) Wikileaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy. London: Guardian Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Neill, O. (2000) Bounds of Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pickard, V. (2010) ‘Reopening the Postwar Settlement for U.S. Media: The Origins and Implications of the Social Contract Between Media, the State and the Polity’, Communication, Culture & Critique 3(2): 170–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickard, V. (2011) ‘The Battle over the FCC Blue Book: Determining the Role of Broadcast Media in a Democratic Society’, Media, Culture and Society 33(2): 1945–1948.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Price, M.E. (1994) ‘The Market for Loyalties: Electronic Media and the Global Competition for Allegiances’, Yale Law Journal 104: 667–705.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rao, S. and Lee, S. (2005) ‘Globalizing Media Ethics? An Assessment of Universal Ethics Among International Political Journalists’, Journal of Mass Media Ethics 20(2&3): 99–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, A. (2011) ‘Wikileaks: The Illusion of Transparency’, Suffolk University Law School Working Paper. April 2, Suffolk University Law School Research Paper No. 11–19 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1801343.

  • Rosen, J. (2012) ‘Wikileaks, the World’s First Stateless News Organisation’, blog post at http://pressthink.org/2010/07/the-afghanistan-war-logs-released-by-Wikileaks-the-worlds-first-stateless-news-organization/.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rusbridger, Alan (2011) ‘Introduction’, in Leigh, D. and Harding, L. (eds) Wikileaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy. London: Guardian Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shirky, C. (2010) ‘Half Formed Thought on Wikileaks’, blog post at http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/12/half-formed-thought-on-Wikileaks-global-action/.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siebert, F., Peterson, T., and Schramm, W. (1956) Four Theories of the Press: The Authoritarian, Libertarian, Social Responsibility, and Soviet Communist Concepts of What the Press Should Be and Do. Urbana: University of Illinois.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverstone, R. (2006) The Media and Morality: On the Rise of the Mediapolis. Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strentz, H. (2001) ‘Universal Ethical Standards?’, Journal of Mass Media Ethic, 17(4): 263–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tambini, D. (2009a) ‘Transformation of the Public Sphere: Law, Policy and the Boundaries of Publicness’, in Harrison, J. and Wessels, B. (eds) Mediating Europe: New Media, Mass Communications, and the European Public Sphere. Oxford: Berghahn Books: 47–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tambini, D. (2009b) ‘Book review: Oliver Castendyk et al., European Media Law Jackie Harrison and Lorna Woods, European Broadcasting Law and Policy’, Journal of Media Law 1(1): 129–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tambini, D. (2012) ‘Conflicts of Interest and Journalism Ethics. A Case Study of Hong Kong’, Journal of Mass Media Ethics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, S. J. A. (2005) ‘Philosophical Foundations for Global Journalism Ethics’, Journal of Mass Media Ethics 20(1): 3–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, S. J. A. (2010) ‘A Theory of Patriotism for Global Journalism’, in Ward, S. J.A. and Wasserman, H. (eds), Media Ethics Beyond Borders. A Global Perspective. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, S. J.A. and Wasserman, H., (eds) (2010) Media Ethics Beyond Borders. A Global Perspective. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2013 Damian Tambini

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Tambini, D. (2013). WikiLeaks, National Security and Cosmopolitan Ethics. In: Couldry, N., Madianou, M., Pinchevski, A. (eds) Ethics of Media. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137317513_14

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics