National security, public interest, Manning, Assange and Wikileaks

National security is usually an overriding reason given by governments to suppress information or persecute those who choose to release these information to the public. Yet, when it comes to defining national security, most officials would have a difficult time, trying to justify the need to classify these information as confidential.

Expect protests for G20 Seoul summit

Expect protests and counter-repression tactics during the upcoming G20 Seoul summit happening between 11 and 12 November. According to the NGO coalition, Put People First! Korean People’s G20 Response Action, which consists of an alliance of student, trade unions and other civil society participants, 200 foreign activists have already been banned from entering Seoul during the intergovernmental meeting.

Why are they persecuting Wikileaks frontman, Julian Assange?

According to this New York Times report, Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange is on the run. Wanted by the U.S. government for the 1917 Espionage Act and facing sexual assault charges by the Swedish government, he believes he has also lost the possibility of refuge in other countries such as Britain and Iceland which are likely to hand him over to the Americans. Even Australia, where he was born, will do the same. In a reported conversation with an Australian senior official, the latter said, “You play outside the rules, and you will be dealt with outside the rules.”

A self-serving insider perspective of wikileaks?

In an opinion piece for Al Jazeera, Grenier, a retired CIA veteran suggests that the recent wikileaks reveals few surprises. Furthermore, the greatest potential harm lies in promoting ‘tendentious interpretations’ i.e. a particular viewpoint or cause that is especially controversial.

European corporations criticised for workers’ rights violations

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has just published a new report on its website, ‘A Strange Case’ highlighting the questionable labor practices of supposedly law abiding European corporations in America.