FAIR logo image map FAIR logo About Us What's Wrong with the News Issues & Archives Studies & Reports Press Center What's New Extra! Counterspin FAIR Blog Take Action
Sign Up for FAIR's Email List:
FAIR WebStore  |   Subscribe to Extra!   |   Donate to FAIR
[adv search]

We Support WikiLeaks

Stand with Daniel Ellsberg, Barbara Ehrenreich, Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky and others--
add your name at the bottom of the page!

As journalists, activists, artists, scholars and citizens, we condemn the array of threats and attacks on the journalist organization WikiLeaks. After the website's decision, in collaboration with several international media organizations, to publish hundreds of classified State Department diplomatic cables, many pundits, commentators and prominent U.S. politicians have called for harsh actions to be taken to shut down WikiLeaks' operations.

Major corporations like Amazon.com, PayPal, MasterCard and Visa have acted to disrupt the group's ability to publish. U.S. legal authorities and others have repeatedly suggested, without providing any evidence, that WikiLeaks' posting of government secrets is a form of criminal behavior--or that at the very least, such activity should be made illegal. "To the extent there are gaps in our laws," Attorney General Eric Holder proclaimed (11/29/10), "we will move to close those gaps."

Throughout this episode, journalists and prominent media outlets have largely refrained from defending WikiLeaks' rights to publish material of considerable news value and obvious public interest. It appears that these media organizations are hesitant to stand up for this particular media outlet's free speech rights because they find the supposed political motivations behind WikiLeaks' revelations objectionable.

But the test for one's commitment to freedom of the press is not whether one agrees with what a media outlet publishes or the manner in which it is published. WikiLeaks is certainly not beyond criticism. But the overarching consideration should be the freedom to publish in a democratic society--including the freedom to publish material that a particular government would prefer be kept secret. When government officials and media outlets declare that attacks on a particular media organization are justified, it sends an unmistakably chilling message about the rights of anyone to publish material that might rattle or offend established powers.

We hereby stand in support of the WikiLeaks media organization, and condemn the attacks on their freedom as an attack on journalistic freedoms for all.

******

Daniel Ellsberg
Noam Chomsky
Glenn Greenwald (Salon)
Barbara Ehrenreich
Arundhati Roy (author)
Medea Benjamin (Code Pink)
Tom Morello (musician)
John Nichols (The Nation)
Craig Brown (CommonDreams)
Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report)
DeeDee Halleck (Waves of Change, Deep Dish Network)
Norman Solomon (author, War Made Easy)
Tom Hayden
Fatima Bhutto (author)
Viggo Mortensen (actor)
Don Rojas (Free Speech TV)
Robert McChesney
Edward S. Herman (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)
Sam Husseini
Jeff Cohen (Park Center for Independent Media)
Joel Bleifuss (In These Times)
Maya Schenwar (Truthout)
Greg Ruggiero (City Lights)
Thom Hartmann
Ben Ehrenreich
Robin Andersen (Fordham University)
Anthony Arnove (author, Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal)
Robert Naiman (Just Foreign Policy)
Dan Gillmor (Salon)
Michael Albert (Z Magazine)
Kate Murphy (The Nation)
Michelangelo Signorile (Sirius XM)
Lisa Lynch (Concordia University)
Rory O'Connor (Media Is a Plural)
Aaron Swartz
Peter Rothberg (The Nation)
Doug Henwood (Left Business Observer)
Barry Crimmins
Bill Fletcher, Jr (Blackcommentator.com)
Bob Harris (writer)
Jonathan Schwarz (A Tiny Revolution)
Alex Kane
Susan Ohanian
Jamie McClelland (May First/People Link)
Alfredo Lopez (May First/People Link)
Antonia Zerbisias (Toronto Star)
Mark Crispin Miller (NYU)
Jonathan Tasini
Antony Loewenstein
David Swanson
Jim Hightower
Laura Flanders
Tom Tomorrow
Don Hazen (AlterNet)

(Organizations/institutions listed for identification purposes only)
Optional Member Code


1-25 of 10488 signatures
Number Date Name Location
10488 Thu Jun 13 11:24:10 EDT 2013 Janet Imus Olympia, WA , US
10487 Fri Jun 07 16:25:07 EDT 2013 Ross Hersey US There would be no need for Wikileaks if our media actually did their jobs. Until then, Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, and Julian Assange are the people who are actually keeping our government honest.
10486 Wed Jun 05 06:14:20 EDT 2013 Anonymous Melbourne, ot , AU
10485 Sun Jun 02 18:47:15 EDT 2013 albert casale New Milford, CT , US
10484 Sat Jun 01 15:45:12 EDT 2013 william power kurtistown, HI , US What harms evil helps everybody else.
10483 Thu May 30 19:30:57 EDT 2013 george martin=mauser palm Desert, CA , US
10482 Thu May 30 14:25:54 EDT 2013 Susan Balmer Chicago, IL , US
10481 Tue May 28 13:09:39 EDT 2013 mark holderness london, ot , GB
10480 Mon May 20 08:33:42 EDT 2013 Marcia Bedard Pomona, CA , US
10479 Thu May 16 18:28:11 EDT 2013 David Bremenstuhl, Education Laureate Gaithersburg, MD , US More than 60 years ago, independent jouralist, I. F. Stone wrote a book entitled "All Governments Lie" !! Within the fabric of Wikileaks lies one of Stone's truths: governments, even , or especially, More.... the United States conceals truths about its behavior under the cloak of "national security" !! Throwing around the terms: "un-American" and "national security" to keep citizens ignorant and unaware of its government's behavior is both jingoistic and intellectually dishonent !!! Making truth tellers into criminals simply because they threaten to tell the truth is a tactic used by dictatorships and totalitarian governments !! To surpress and conceal the truth and to turn those who tell the truth into criminals is antithetical to democracy and the values it says it believes !!! In a democracy you cannot make up the history you want to believe OR to make up the truth You want others to believe !! To do this is unconscionable and is a disgrace and a slander to the very principles of democracy upon which this country was founded !!!
10478 Wed May 08 23:54:21 EDT 2013 charlie ehlen Alexandria, LA , US The people of the world need the truth. Actually, we DEMAND the truth!
10477 Tue May 07 12:18:28 EDT 2013 T. Rogers Rockvile, MD , US Take action and support!
10476 Sun May 05 20:07:47 EDT 2013 Nathalie Haymann Jurien Bay, ot , AU Julian Assange and Wikileaks will be vindicated.
10475 Sun May 05 17:56:49 EDT 2013 Gilia Humrich FORESTVILLE, CA , US
10474 Thu May 02 23:32:39 EDT 2013 Ryan Reisner Eau Claire Wi, WI , US Wiki leaks is the last defense for freedom of the press!
10473 Wed May 01 19:11:29 EDT 2013 Joey Ratcliff corpus christi, TX , US A transparent government should not be the ideal, but the norm and in reality. Stop the ultra rich ceo's and royal families from having a shadow government/s. JFK wanted to use diplomacy, not covert More....war, with Russia; we should do this now and with all countries, corporations, and conglomerates. Let's face it, many have been assassinated, murdered, and called collateral damage in all wars ----- this present way of life is not working. Hopefully this step will help turn the tide toward peace ----- or at least give journalists a chance to regain objective reporting of what really is going on in our world.
10472 Tue Apr 30 22:11:50 EDT 2013 Yves Sabourin Gatineau, QC , CA National security has become the favourite refuge of the scoundrel.
10471 Sat Apr 27 22:14:11 EDT 2013 Dwight Patton Cincinnati, OH , US I want to see what misdeeds the government is doing in my name. Thanks Wikileaks
10470 Sat Apr 27 10:40:12 EDT 2013 Lydia Howell Minneapolis, MN , US Wikileaks is what a FREE PRESS looks like! Wikileaks is dong the job of journalism that CORPORATE MEDIA REFUSES TO DO. Our democracy will FAIL WITHOUT A FREE PRESS--such as Wikileaks remains. STOP PERSECUTING More....WIKILEAKS---you are violating the First AMendment and We The People's RIGHT TO KNOW what our government isdoing in our names.
10469 Sat Apr 27 08:17:41 EDT 2013 salvatore cassisi chester, NY , US
10468 Fri Apr 26 19:36:14 EDT 2013 T. Rogers Rockvile, MD , US
10467 Fri Apr 26 16:44:11 EDT 2013 Elliott Whitener Jessup, MD , US
10466 Fri Apr 26 06:51:16 EDT 2013 Theotis Daniels Rochester, NY , US
10465 Wed Apr 24 19:58:35 EDT 2013 Catherine Rodgers Berkeley Springs, WV , US
10464 Thu Apr 18 08:44:22 EDT 2013 Jorge Marrero Hawley, PA , US
Next ->