Whistle-blowers: A virtual death- Wikileaks is alive. But barely-07 March 2010,(TODAY IT PROVES WRONG,WITHIN FEW MONTHS,ITS BACK WITH STORM!!!)

Whistle-blowers: A virtual death

Javed Anwer
07 March 2010, 04:00 AM IST


Wikileaks is alive. But barely. The controversial website, launched in December 2006 reportedly with the help of some Chinese refugees, has in its short existence, become a thorn in the flesh of several governments. Its primary job is to "provide whistle-blowers a secure platform". It's obvious it was never going to have too many friends. But no one was sure it would die either and a brave virtual community of supporters is trying to save it from virtual death.


On December 24, Wikileaks shut down operations even as its popularity continued to grow. It was the classic case of a non-profit website failing for lack of funds and resources. Wikileaks vowed not to accept funding from governments and/or corporate houses even as it admitted it was besieged by hits. "We have received hundreds of thousands of pages from corrupt banks, the US detainee system, those linked to the Iraq war, China, the UN and many others, (but) we do not currently have the resources to release them," wrote the website's editor Julian Assange, appealing to individuals to donate money. "You can change that and by doing so, change the world. Even $10 will pay to put one of these reports into another 10,000 hands and $1,000, a million."


The appeal took some little time to filter into people's consciousness, but the web community slowly gathered support for Wikileaks. One member of Boing Boing, a group blog, made an appeal for funds on behalf of Wikileaks on January 11 even as news of Wikileaks going down made it to the front pages of user-driven news aggregators such as Digg and Slashdot, frequented by millions everyday.


Once the buzz caught on, more organized support was generated. Azeem Azhar, an entrepreneur who has dabbled in many web ventures, started a ‘Save Wikileaks' group on Facebook. He was soon joined by Martin Bright, a British journalist and British Kashmiri writer Hari Kunzru. "Wikileaks is an essential resource to keep governments, bankers, tax evaders, torturers, and ‘the Man' in check....Please join this group to support Wikileaks. And visit www.wikileaks.org to donate – $25 would be good," the group urged visitors.


It worked. On February 3, it resumed operations, though only partially. The website staff tweeted on Twitter, "Achieved minimum fund raising goal. ($200k/600k); we're back fighting for another year, even if we have to eat rice to do it."


Assange told STOI, "As of March 4, we have raised around $360,000", but that is still just over half of what they would need to run operations for a year. Assange says they "hope to resume full operations in a month. Until then, we will release selected urgent material."


As of March 4, Save Wikileaks had 2,710 members, with most trying to do their bit for the "good cause". Its members have given it a ringing endorsement. Wrote Claus Nehmzow at the group's wall, "It was on Wikileaks that I read about the German government knowing about civilian casualties at the Kunduz bombing (in Afghanistan), while officially denying it."


Since it was launched, Wikileaks has brought to public attention secret documents related to Guantanamo Bay prison manual, the far-right British National Party, corrupt African politicians, Swiss banks and web censorship in Australia. It has won prizes but as the whistle-blower's dream journal knows, accolades cannot pay the bills.