WITN: Wikileaks – Enemy of Democracy, Fact of Life… or Both? (TCTV)

It’s impossible to throw a rock at a media outlet today without hitting a story about Wikileaks. And to make the rock throwing even easier, the subject of this week’s Why Is This News is: Wikileaks – ‘enemy of democracy, just plain fact of life… or both?’

In it, Sarah argues that, for good or ill, the leaking of several hundred thousand diplomatic cables simply reflects today’s reality that no information is ever truly secret in the Internet age. The US government, like major companies before them, simply need to adapt to that reality – improving their behaviour, but also getting better at locking down the truly secret stuff. Paul, on the other hand, just hates everything about Wikileaks, describing it as one man’s pathetic ego trip which reveals almost nothing useful and which, if anything, will massively set back the site’s stated goal of ‘transparency’.

In many ways, we’re both arguing the same point from different angles. But, hey, at least we’re arguing – which always makes for a fun episode. Video below.