The Runaway Train – WikiLeaks and the End of Trust

By Rabbi Nissan Wilson – JABE Rabbinic Consultant

It all seemed perfectly reasonable at first – an internet-based media organisation conducting hard-hitting investigative journalism.

When WikiLeaks published the US Army’s Guantanamo Bay operating procedures in December 2007, that was simply the media doing its job. When the organisation published the names, addresses and occupations of 13,000 members of the BNP in November 2008, few people balked in horror.

In recent weeks, though, it has become increasingly clear that this is no ordinary media organisation. The brazen revelation of details of secret US Embassy cables and lists of key US facilities vital to national security seems more like the work of those wishing to cause serious negative consequences, rather than prevent them. Such actions may well make us wonder whether life after WikiLeaks will ever be the same.

Whistle-blowing certainly plays an indispensable role in exposing both systemic failure in major organisations and sleaze and corruption in public officials. Of course, there are ethical considerations, and the Jewish legal perspective on whistle-blowing sets out a number of caveats. These include: accurate and unexaggerated reporting of the facts; a motivation to prevent loss or damage; and attention to any collateral damage caused by revealing sensitive information.

Whistle-blowing is a long-established part of public life, and the media is its time-honoured champion. And so it seemed that, save for the brilliantly effective use of new technology, there was nothing new in the principles behind WikiLeaks. But it is now abundantly clear that WikiLeaks will never be content with exposing corrupt individuals and evil regimes. This is a mission to expose everything – every document, communication or correspondence that has ever been kept secret.

The principle that guides WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, and his cloaked team, is that secrets must be exposed; in a democracy, secrets are evil. We elect governments to represent us, but the electoral process has meaning only if we know their every movement and can hold them to account.

There is a philosophical argument here involving principles such as freedom of speech, truth, human rights – all subjects for endless debates and dinner table conversation. Whatever one’s opinion on freedom of speech, there is something about this that will make many of us feel uncomfortable. Can we ever feel at ease in such a culture of extreme scrutiny? Do we really want to live in a world where nobody trusts anybody?

In the business world and in communal life alike, we look for people we can trust. Bosses look to find employees who are reliable and communities seek to appoint leaders who are trustworthy. Whilst we expect a certain level of transparency and openness, we recognise that by trusting people, we empower them. Extreme media surveillance may help root out certain unethical practices, but it will not make people more ethical. Only by trusting people and encouraging them to act with integrity, will we be able to create a culture of honesty and personal virtue.

When WikiLeaks published the membership lists of the BNP, they did so presumably on the basis that they deemed it in the public interest to expose an organisation with a racist agenda. What, though, if the good people at WikiLeaks were to decide that it is of value to expose those who give money to, say, building projects in sensitive areas, religious or educational establishments in the UK or abroad, or political parties. Must we live in fear that every charitable donation and private act of kindness will one day go viral?

Such decisions should remain private. We must all be left some space to act based on our own internal belief system, rather than on the belief system of a not-for-profit media organisation that has set itself up as the world’s policeman for human rights.

There is always a balance to be struck between responsibility and accountability, between transparency and trust. The business world has in recent years moved towards trusting people, and this is surely a move for the better. When we trust people, we communicate a deep meta-message about the value of honesty.

WikiLeaks has opened the floodgates, and now none of the world’s secrets are off-limits. At a frightening speed, this veiled organisation has gone from world policeman to vigilante to terrorist. The WikiLeaks story has only just begun and there is surely no knowing where it will end.

As the new whistle-blowing mania charges forward like a runaway train, let us make sure that we never forget how to trust people, and let us hope that the trust we invest in others will always be repaid in kind, thus preventing loss or damage caused by revealing sensitive information.