Wikileaks Denied A Speaking Opportunity At UN Conference About Wikileaks?

from the perhaps-someone-will-leak-a-pass? dept

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, is hosting a conference about The Media World after Wikileaks and News of the World. Sounds like it could be an interesting event, but one organization not happy about it… is Wikileaks. Seeing as it was a conference that touched on Wikileaks’ interests directly, Wikileaks asked to take part, and was instead denied a chance to speak at the event. When asked about this, UNESCO actually claimed that choosing to not allow Wikileaks attendees was an exercise in “freedom of expression,” which seems like a poor choice of words.

Of course, Wikileaks doesn’t come out of this looking very good either. In unfortunately typical overstatement from Wikileaks, it tries to paint this as some big censorship issue, but that seems like an exaggeration. UNESCO noted that Julian Assange’s legal advisor is taking part, as are numerous news organizations that partnered with Wikileaks. Wikileaks complains that even if Assange’s legal counsel will be on one panel, there’s no Wikileaks representation on other panels. Now, if I were organizing the event, I might use that as an opportunity to invite direct representatives of the site… if only for the fact that it would draw more interest to many of the discussions. However, beyond the irony of telling Wikileaks it can’t speak at an event about Wikileaks, it really seems like the site is trying to make a bigger deal out of this than is justified.

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Companies: wikileaks

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Comments on “Wikileaks Denied A Speaking Opportunity At UN Conference About Wikileaks?”

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57 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

i assume that the conference will be used to bash Wikileaks, just as certain people use every opportunity to bash Google. why should they not get chance to speak, especially if the bashing does happen? i doubt if you, Mike, would be particularly happy if Techdirt was to be discussed and possibly bashed, without having the chance to speak!

adamj says:

Re:

If that were true, I don’t think techdirt would be as popular as it is with this many registered users and readers who visit this site. Even if he does exaggerate from time to time, is that not his right to free speech? The legacy industries certainly exercise that right, daily. Plus, you’re assuming that people don’t have common sense and therefore just believe whatever Mike puts in front of us.
You might believe that Mike uses hyperbole as a tool for deception and to dupe the weak minded, but alas, here you are posting on his site. lol

PlagueSD says:

Should have called it "Post-Digital Propoganda"

So if journalism is to be defined as the restricted, government-approved dispersion of information. and propoganda is defined as follows:

prop?a?gan?da/ˌpr?pəˈgandə/
Noun:
1.Information, esp. of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
2.The dissemination of such information as a political strategy.

So journalism = propaganda…I was wondering when this was going to happen!!!

Anonymous Coward says:

so “freedom of expression,” only applies to those few,

What a stupid attempt to try and use our words against us, at least our trolls here put some effort into it

You’re talking about wikileaks, but wikileaks cant attend, because you have the right to express through freedom that you dont want wikileaks there to exercise their right to speak on the subject of wikileaks………Yeah. OK. Sure! I buy that! Uh-huh!

The more this happens the more aggro i feel, and i surely doubt im the only one

darryl says:

Lets Face facts

Wikileaks, was a comprehensive failure, ask yourself what has it really achieved ?

Political damage was virtually zero, (pollies can do more damage to themselves that others can).

Thousands of documents were leaks, is there any indication that this release really changed anything ?

Did it provide anything information in it’s leaked information that most people did not allready know, or have a strong suspician that would be occuring.

Wikileaks got it’s 15 minutes of fame, (at a high price), and really achieved nothing..

Why would you want wikileaks to come and talk, when you know they dont really have anything to say!

Wikileaks is old history,,,,,, next..

Anonymous Coward says:

Re:

Even if he does exaggerate from time to time,

That would be from the TIME he first typed a word, to the present TIME…

it’s also more ‘fabricate’ and exaggerate… but you are right..

Not all registered people on TD support TD, many are hear to readwhat wild claims mansick will come up with next..

He wants to be the untimate spin artist, but just does not have to talent for it.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re:

the very fact you have commented on one of the rare times that masnick has ever made these types of comments, that you have to comment on it, is proof that you too believe masnick is one sided, and biased, and clearly has a hidden agenda..

Fact is he still believes that wikileaks is important, and was a ‘game changer’ that is actually not the case, wikileaks had and is having virtually zero effect, it has not caused anyone to do anything differently, or anyone fired or punished..

Wikileaks was a flop, that is why they are not invited to talk..

Catherine says:

Re:

Well you assumed wrong. I attended the conference (part of it, only yesterday), and i’ve only heard speakers defending the protection of sources and how journalists’ and other news providers’ issues are being modified, especially since cases such as WikiLeaks and News of the world occurred, which was the primary purpose. And all this, I should state, in front of a half empty room, when anybody was free to attend and participate in the debate. Representatives of WikiLeaks have not been banned, they have not been requested.

Marcel de Jong (profile) says:

Re:

The world’s largest terrorist organisation with the most kills is the same as the one with the most threats ==> ‘good ole’ United States of America with its scumbag Congress and its presidents that don’t change a thing.

Or would anyone say that still having a prison at Guantanamo Bay is according to the Geneva Convention? Let’s not forget about the so-called Patriot Act? And that country’s leaders even terrorise their own citizens, with the threat that anyone could be detained without a charge brought forth.

bratwurzt (profile) says:

Re:

“Fact is he still believes that wikileaks is important, and was a ‘game changer’ that is actually not the case, wikileaks had and is having virtually zero effect, it has not caused anyone to do anything differently, or anyone fired or punished.. “

Wikileaks was a flop? In what way? Like Internet is a flop until these pesky google engineers implement gimme-money-many-times-for-the-same-horrible-service techy thingy on the internet, that will save the content industry (?) and with that the world!! It seems your bubble does not include news from… I don’t know, the world? Middle east? Green revolution? Wikileaks ofcourse had nothing to do with that – it was all twitters fault that these strange men with strange beards are making your fuel more expensive!

Hidden agenda? Clearly. His agenda is truth. I know – it is horrible – this truth thingy. You can’t change it, it’s stuck in its ways and that has to be changed. It would be so much easier to manipulate truth if only we would have a tool that would give power to select people for replacement of these pesky facts with something nicer. Hmmm, maybe Jacob Appelbaum could help – he has so much experience in these things and he looooves USA!

Actual facts about your statement:
1. You are not taken seriously because your english is worse than mine (and my native language is not english).
2. You could have been taken more seriously if you had an account here.
3. Stating your opinion on actual affairs does not make your statement the truth. If you do know that – then you’re just seeking attention and an emotional response to further devaluate the debate (troll)

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