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WikiLeaks is a force for good

US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously opined that “sunlight is the best disinfectant”. Yet even the liberal democracies have claimed that sometimes they require a place in the shade – condemning WikiLeaks for publishing their confidential information.

Many people are convinced that WikiLeaks is a force for good; others condemn it as being equivalent to a terrorist organisation that detonates explosive information rather than bombs.

Are governments justified in their condemnation of WikiLeaks and merely being responsible in protecting their secrets? Could the world really survive an unbridled commitment to transparency?

Poll results

At each IQ² debate the audience is polled on the topic, both before and after the debate takes place. Here are the results for this debate:

	Pre-debate poll	Post-debate poll
For:	63%	58%
Undecided:	31%	9%
Against:	6%	33%

Watch the video

Speakers

For:

• Dr Suelette Dreyfus is a Research Fellow in Information Systems at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests include the impact of digital technologies on whistleblowing to the media, e-health records, electronic reporting of errors in hospitals and computer security. She wrote the book Underground in collaboration with Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. Initially published in 1997, Underground was the first mainstream book about computer hacking in Australia. It has been translated into seven other languages and has been described as a cult classic. The electronic release of the book in 2001 saw more than 400,000 downloads. Dreyfus trained as a newspaper journalist before moving into investigative journalism and academic research. Her articles have appeared in a range of publications including The Independent (London), The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Good Weekend Magazine and The Australian as well as in online publications. She has served as a Member of the board for various community organisations.
• Kristinn Hrafnsson is the current spokesman for WikiLeaks following legal battles engulfing the organisation's founder, Julian Assange. Hrafnsson is an Icelandic investigative journalist who exposed high level criminal activity and corruption. His work on the collapse of Iceland's Kaupthing Bank caused his TV program to be taken off air and the team sacked. He joined the news team of Iceland's national broadcaster and fought against the legal suppression of further exposés about the bank drawn from documents published by WikiLeaks. Hrafnsson was subsequently made redundant from the broadcaster in July last year and began to work independently. He collaborated with the WikiLeaks organisation and called the December 2010 attacks on WikiLeaks a "privatisation of censorship".
• Professor Stuart Rees is Emeritus Professor at Sydney university and Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation which earlier this year awarded the Foundation’s medal for human rights to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Rees began as a probation officer/social worker in the court system in London and worked in mental health,and community development programs in British Colombia, India and Sri Lanka and in the War on Poverty projects at the University of Southern Colorado. He was Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Sydney until 'retirement' in 2000. Rees co-founded Sydney University's Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies and was Director from 1988 to 2006. In 1997 he co-founded the Sydney Peace Foundation. In 2005 he was awarded the Order of Australia for service to international relations. Rees is author and co-author of ten social science, social welfare texts and two anthologies of poetry: The Jury's Return (1992), Tell Me The Truth About War (2004). His last scholarly work on peace with justice issues was Passion for Peace: Exercising Power Creatively (2003) Sydney, UNSW Press.

Against:

• Gareth Evans AO QC, former Foreign Minister for Australia, is known internationally for work on the Cambodian peace plan and concluding the UN Chemical Weapons Convention. He was President of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group and is currently Chancellor of the Australian National University and Professorial Fellow at The University of Melbourne. Evans was awarded the 2010 Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Four Freedoms Award for Freedom from Fear which cited his work in conflict prevention and resolution.
• Dr Michael Fullilove is the Director of the Global Issues Program at the Lowy Institute and a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. A lawyer and historian by training, Fullilove wrote his doctorate at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He served as an adviser to Prime Minister Paul Keating and produced the initial feasibility study for the Lowy Institute. Dr Fullilive has published more than 150 articles on international politics in publications such as The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Washington Post, The National Interest and Foreign Affairs as well as all the Australian broadsheets. His first book, Men and Women of Australia! Our Greatest Modern Speeches, was published by Vintage. His next book, on the Second World War, will be published in the United States and Australia by The Penguin Press.
• Tom Switzer is a research associate at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney where he teaches undergraduate courses in American politics and Australian history. He is also editor of the Spectator Australia, published in London. Switzer is a former Senior Adviser in the federal Opposition Leader’s office (2008), Opinion Editor for The Australian (2001-08), Editorial Writer at The Australian Financial Review (1998-2001) and Assistant Editor at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC (1995-98). He is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal (Asia), the American Review, the ABC’s The Drum and Quadrant magazine.

Chair:

Dr Simon Longstaff has a PhD in Philosophy from Cambridge. Prior to becoming the inaugural Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre in 1991, Dr Longstaff worked in the Northern Territory in the Safety Department of BHP subsidiary, GEMCO, lectured at Cambridge University and consulted to the Cambridge Commonwealth and Overseas Trusts. His book Hard Cases, Tough Choices was published in 1997. Dr Longstaff was inaugural President of the Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics and is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum. He is Chairman of Woolworths Limited Corporate Responsibility Panel and AMP Capital Socially Responsible Investment Advisory Committee and serves as Member on a number of Board Committees.