In the history of Wikileaks, nobody has claimed that the material being put out is not authentic.
In the history of Wikileaks, nobody has claimed that the material being put out is not authentic.
Well, there's a question as to what sort of information is important in the world, what sort of info...
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Well, there's a question as to what sort of information is important in the world, what sort of information can achieve reform. And there's a lot of information. So information that organizations are spending economic effort into concealing, that's a really good signal that when the information gets out, there's a hope of it doing some good.
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[from a letter to Benedict Cumberbatch on his participation in The Fifth Estate (2013)] You will be ...
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[from a letter to Benedict Cumberbatch on his participation in The Fifth Estate (2013)] You will be used as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it. To present me as someone morally compromised and to place me in a falsified history. To create a work, not of fiction, but of debased truth. Not because you want to, of course, but because - in the end - you are a jobbing actor who gets paid to follow the script, no matter how debauched. Your skills play into the hands of people who are out to remove me and WikiLeaks from the world. I believe that you should reconsider your involvement in this enterprise.
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[on media bias] Readers see that. They feel it. They don't like being lectured or told what to do. A...
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[on media bias] Readers see that. They feel it. They don't like being lectured or told what to do. And they rebel against it. [Dec.2016]
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In my role as Wikileaks editor, I've been involved in fighting off many legal attacks. To do that, a...
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In my role as Wikileaks editor, I've been involved in fighting off many legal attacks. To do that, and keep our sources safe, we have had to spread assets, encrypt everything, and move telecommunications and people around the world to activate protective laws in different national jurisdictions.
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We released 400,000 classified documents, the most extraordinary history of a war to ever have been ...
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We released 400,000 classified documents, the most extraordinary history of a war to ever have been released in our civilization. Those documents cover 109,000 deaths. That is serious matter.
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We don't say that the State Department should have no secrets. That's not what we say. Rather we say...
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We don't say that the State Department should have no secrets. That's not what we say. Rather we say, that if there are people in the State Department who say there is some abuse going on and there is not a proper mechanism for internal accountability and external accountability, they must have a conduit to get that out to the public. And we are the conduit. [2011]
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True information does good.
True information does good.
It is the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers, and when powerful abusers are taken o...
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It is the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers, and when powerful abusers are taken on, there's always a bad reaction. So we see that controversy, and we believe that is a good thing to engage in.
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We don't have sources who are dissidents on other sources. Should they come forward, that would be a...
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We don't have sources who are dissidents on other sources. Should they come forward, that would be a tricky situation for us. But we're presumably acting in such a way that people feel morally compelled to continue our mission, not to screw it up.
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[on old media journalists] They're increasingly not very important, the old press is less important....
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[on old media journalists] They're increasingly not very important, the old press is less important... [Dec.2016]
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The corruption in reporting starts very early. It's like the police reporting on the police.
The corruption in reporting starts very early. It's like the police reporting on the police.
The supply of leaks is very large. It's helpful for us to have more people in this industry. It's pr...
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The supply of leaks is very large. It's helpful for us to have more people in this industry. It's protective to us.
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That's a problem. I mean, like any sort of growing startup organization, we are sort of overwhelmed ...
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That's a problem. I mean, like any sort of growing startup organization, we are sort of overwhelmed by our growth. And that means we're getting enormous quantity of whistleblower disclosures of a very high caliber, but don't have enough people to actually process and vet this information.
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If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature.
If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature.
Wikileaks is a mechanism to maximize the flow of information to maximize the amount of action leadin...
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Wikileaks is a mechanism to maximize the flow of information to maximize the amount of action leading to just reform.
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Feature films are the most powerful and insidious shapers of public perception, because they fly und...
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Feature films are the most powerful and insidious shapers of public perception, because they fly under the radar of conscious exclusion.
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We have a way of dealing with information that has sort of personal - personally identifying informa...
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We have a way of dealing with information that has sort of personal - personally identifying information in it. But there are legitimate secrets - you know, your records with your doctor; that's a legitimate secret. But we deal with whistleblowers that are coming forward that are really sort of well motivated.
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As we've gotten more successful, there's a gap between the speed of our publishing pipeline and the ...
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As we've gotten more successful, there's a gap between the speed of our publishing pipeline and the speed of our receiving submissions pipeline. Our pipeline of leaks has been increasing exponentially as our profile rises, and our ability to publish is increasing linearly.
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I mean there's enormous pressures to harmonize freedom of speech legislation and transparency legisl...
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I mean there's enormous pressures to harmonize freedom of speech legislation and transparency legislation around the world - within the E.U., between China and the United States. Which way is it going to go? It's hard to see.
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Intelligence agencies keep things secret because they often violate the rule of law or of good behav...
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Intelligence agencies keep things secret because they often violate the rule of law or of good behaviour.
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We get information in the mail, the regular postal mail, encrypted or not, vet it like a regular new...
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We get information in the mail, the regular postal mail, encrypted or not, vet it like a regular news organization, format it - which is sometimes something that's quite hard to do, when you're talking about giant databases of information - release it to the public and then defend ourselves against the inevitable legal and political attacks.
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When it comes to the point where you occasionally look forward to being in prison on the basis that ...
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When it comes to the point where you occasionally look forward to being in prison on the basis that you might be able to spend a day reading a book, the realization dawns that perhaps the situation has become a little more stressful than you would like.
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[on the difference between newspapers and WikiLeaks] Our stuff has more impact. [Dec.2016]
[on the difference between newspapers and WikiLeaks] Our stuff has more impact. [Dec.2016]
I can't stand these people who say they would never do anything different. That simply means that th...
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I can't stand these people who say they would never do anything different. That simply means that they have not learned a single thing from their experiences.
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We have some material on spying by a major government on the tech industry. Industrial espionage.
We have some material on spying by a major government on the tech industry. Industrial espionage.
What is the possible benefit? Can this material save lives? Can it improve the quality of life in Ir...
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What is the possible benefit? Can this material save lives? Can it improve the quality of life in Iraq? Can it tend to shape our perceptions of how war should and should not be conducted? Can it shape our perceptions of who should be conducting war and in what manner? And the answer to that is a clear yes.
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These big-package releases. There should be a cute name for them.
These big-package releases. There should be a cute name for them.
We always expect tremendous criticism. It is my role to be the lightning rod ... to attract the atta...
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We always expect tremendous criticism. It is my role to be the lightning rod ... to attract the attacks against the organization for our work, and that is a difficult role. On the other hand, I get undue credit.
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WikiLeaks is designed to make capitalism more free and ethical.
WikiLeaks is designed to make capitalism more free and ethical.
As we have seen, WikiLeaks is a robust organization. During my time in solitary confinement in the b...
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As we have seen, WikiLeaks is a robust organization. During my time in solitary confinement in the basement of a Victorian prison, we continue to release, our media partners continued to write stories. The important revelations from this material continue to come out. We have approximately 2,000 cables into 250,000.
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Stopping leaks is a new form of censorship.
Stopping leaks is a new form of censorship.
Well, I mean, the real attack on truth is tabloid journalism in the United States.
Well, I mean, the real attack on truth is tabloid journalism in the United States.
[in Architects of Denial (2017)] Turkey has gone around the world aggressively lobbying to make sure...
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[in Architects of Denial (2017)] Turkey has gone around the world aggressively lobbying to make sure there are no references to the Armenian Genocide. [2017]
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These megaleaks... They're an important phenomenon, and they're only going to increase.
These megaleaks... They're an important phenomenon, and they're only going to increase.
We like to engage in a normal publishing effort, which is to act in a responsible manner and make su...
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We like to engage in a normal publishing effort, which is to act in a responsible manner and make sure the material is not likely to harm anyone, that it is properly investigated by quality news organizations, and by lawyers and human rights groups and so on.
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