Looking back at 2010: Wikileaks at the Frontline Club
By Will Spens
WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website that is in the process of releasing tens of thousands of classified documents relating to US military and diplomatic affairs, has been the subject of intense media scrutiny in recent months.
Now under arrest following allegations of sexual assault, Julian Assange and his legal team is now fighting his possible extradition to Sweden and/or the US.
Since July when WikiLeaks held its first press conference at the Frontline Club Julian Assange and other members of the WikiLeaks have taken part in a number of discussions about the issues raised by their leaking of documents on Afghanistan and Iraq and the diplomatic cables.
Each time Julian Assange or other WikiLeaks members have taken part in an event tickets have sold out at a record rate, demonstrating the level of interest in WikiLeaks and the questions their work raises.
Here is a roundup of the Frontline events involving WikiLeaks, with links to summaries and videos, along with other articles of interest.
WikiLeaks’ main website can currently be accessed here
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26th July 2010
WikiLeaks: Afghan War Logs – Julian Assange holds press conference at Frontline Club.
Subsequent to the previous evening’s release of 90,000 classified US military documents relating to the war in Afghanistan between 2004-2010, Julian Assange gave a press conference at the Frontline Club in front of many British and international journalists.
You can read a summary of the event and watch the video here.
Further links to media coverage of this press conference can be accessed here.
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27th July 2010
Special event: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the Frontline Club.
Julian Assange was joined by the BBC’s Paddy O’Connell to engage the audience on the impact of the leaked classified documents which chronicle in detail US military operations in Afghanistan between 2004-2010.
A video and audio podcast of the event can be accessed here.
An interview with Julian Assange about the best and worse case scenarios for WikiLeaks can be found here, along with more analysis of the evening.
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12th August 2010
The data revolution: How WikiLeaks is changing journalism.
The controversy surrounding WikiLeaks’ historic release of more than 70,000 classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan has not died down. But one thing is certain: online data and its dissemination is changing journalism and the relationship between the public and those in power. In this special event, we asked:
- How are organisations like WikiLeaks changing the way public data is released?
- What do the Afghan War Logs mean for the mainstream media and government media relations?
- What are the legal implications of the War Logs files’ release?
You can read a summary of the event and watch the video here.
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25th October 2010
WikiLeaks: Iraq War Logs – Julian Assange and Daniel Ellsberg in conversation.
Following the leak by WikiLeaks of almost 400,000 secret US army field reports from the Iraq war between 2004 and 2009, Julian Assange was at the Frontline Club in conversation with one of the most famous whistle blowers in history, Daniel Ellsberg, who was responsible for the leak of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.
The event was chaired by Elizabeth Palmer, CBS News correspondent.
A summary and a video of the event can be found here.
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1st December 2010
WikiLeaks: The US embassy cables
Following the release of of 251,287 confidential United States embassy cables, December’s First Wednesday debate focused on the revelations of this latest leak from whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.
You can read a summary of the evening here and access a video here.