What is Wikileaks

Just like
the word 2G spectrum is drawing every Indian's attention,
wikileaks is a word which is turning out to be a nightmare for many, most
importantly United States of America. For those who have just began to follow
the news related to the cables leaked by wikileaks, a natural question comes in
mind – What is wikileaks actually? Who is Julian Assange and why a
no. of governments around the world are worried over the cables being leaked by wikileaks? This article
tries to give the answer to all of them with brevity.

What is wikileaks?

First of all, wikileaks is not related to Wikipedia or Wikimedia or any other 'wiki-'present
on internet. In fact, wikileaks isn't a website at
all. It is the name of a non-profit organization which has been releasing secret
documents of different governments since 2006. The primary medium of these
releases has been the organization's own website. The organization has been
embroiled in controversies within a couple of years of its inception as more and
more documents were realsed by it.

Who is Julian Assange?

Julian Assange is the founder and
editor-in-chief of wikileaks. He is an Australian by birth and has been
living in different countries for short time periods in past few years. He is
known face of wikileaks in media and has played an instrumental role in
publishing of various secret documents. Assange has been winner of various
prestigious awards including Economist Freedom of Expression Award. He
was named one of the The World's 50 Most Influential Figures.

Why are so many furores against wikileaks recently?

Wikileaks,
since its inception, has been known mostly in the journalism circle only.
General people were hardly aware about this organization which had first
released a document on police killings in Kenya which was a serious violation of
human rights in the country. The organization was first reported prominently in
media when in the month of April this year it posted a shocking video of
massacre of Iraqi civilians committed by US soldiers on its site. Soon, in the
month of July, wikileaks released more than 70,000 secret documents on the
war in Afghanistan. It was followed by the publishing of the documents
related to Iraq war known as Iraq war logs. The release of these documents resulted in a huge hullabaloo,
especially in USA since the documents showed the country in a bad light by
revealing that US army was involved in a no. of atrocities and human rights
violation.

But the organization became a staple of every media in most
of the countries in November when it decided to publish United States
diplomatic cables. Unlike previous releases, this leak was of more volcanic
nature since it involved all those countries which had diplomatic relations with
USA. Many of these countries, along with USA, became very much concerned since
these documents were detailed correspondences between the U.S. State Department
and its diplomatic missions based in various countries. The apparent fear has
been the spoiling of the relations between the countries. Only a small no. of
cables have been published so far and they have resulted in a huge embarrassment
for USA and many other countries. Julian Assange was arrested last week in UK
and the site was removed from its original domain. But wikileaks continue to find a way to
release these documents and has proved to be a pain in the neck for USA and
other countries.