WikiLeaks and journalism in the 21st century

Abstract

In 2006 an unknown Australian computer hacker, Julian Assange, founded WikiLeaks, the not-for profit online media organisation that publishes documents from anonymous sources and whose motto is “to publish fact-based stories without fear or favour”. Within a year of its launch the site claimed to have a database of more than 1.2 million documents. Most of the world would not know about the whistleblower site until April 2010 when WikiLeaks released video footage showing eighteen people, including two Reuters journalists, being clinically gunned down by a US Army Apache helicopter in Iraq. The crew had mistaken their target’s camera equipment for weapons. By the end of 2010 Julian Assange was one of the most famous people on in the world.This study will look at Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks phenomenon and the implications of WikiLeaks for journalism. There Is WikiLeaks a new form of journalism? Is Assange a journalist? However WikiLeaks is defined, has it changed journalism forever? This study looks briefly at the man who founded the site, the philosophy behind WikiLeaks, and its practice over the past five years.