Jodee Taylor: U.N. statement a start

Jodee Taylor

Related Photos

Taylor

January 10, 2011

By JODEE TAYLOR jtaylor@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Mon Jan 10, 2011, 07:08 AM EST

I woke up way too early one morning, but made the best of it with a hot cup of coffee and some Web surfing.

I scrolled through my Twitter feed and found a bland tweet from WikiLeaks: "U.N. statement on WikiLeaks," it said, with a link.

Groan.

Did I really want to start my day with another drubbing of WikiLeaks, reading about how dangerous it is, how governments are blocking access to the Internet, about which corporation has yanked service today?

I sighed, but clicked.

"The right to access information held by public authorities is a fundamental human right ... ."

Huh? Information is a human right?

I double-checked the URL. It was legitimate; the Organization of American States, teaming up with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression.

The report mentioned "a strict regime of exceptions," basically so the rules would be clear to everyone and to make sure the information doesn't put anyone in danger.

WikiLeaks has done that. No one has been injured from any information put on the Web by WikiLeaks, unless you count diplomatic embarrassment as an injury.

The statement went on to define the harm, how it has to be "substantial" and "greater than the overall public interest in having access to the information."

This was getting good. The U.N. was saying it is more important to know what your government is doing than it is to keep its secrets.

"In accordance with international standards, information regarding human rights violations should not be considered secret or classified."

In other words, if you know about something that's stomping on someone's rights, the U.N. says, you need to speak up, even if your boss said to keep it secret. War crimes, like the ones in the WikiLeaks war diaries, detailed several acts that were against international standards. That means the person who told the world about those violations should be exalted, not condemned.

The third point in the U.N. statement might be my favorite.

"Public authorities and their staff bear sole responsibility for protecting the confidentiality of legitimately classified information under their control."

If the government doesn't want information getting out there, it needs to learn to protect it. We're the best and the brightest here in the U.S., but encryption, passwords and network security appear to stymie us. The Air Force takes the time to block The New York Times when it should be concentrating on making sure its data can't be copied to a thumb drive.

The last point in the statement hits the closest to home.

"Special journalistic responsibility is called for ... ."

The cables and war diaries on WikiLeaks are a dump of information that needs to be sifted through, verified and understood. I am in awe of the journalists who are doing that, and there aren't enough of them.

The reporters who have that responsibility, and who are taking it seriously, also deserve to be exalted, as does the United Nations for its wonderful statement.

Jodee Taylor can be reached at jtaylor@record-eagle.com.