Damian TambiniLSE Media Policy project

1. NATIONAL SECURITY AND
FREEDOM OF EXPRESION
AFTER WIKILEAKS
DAMIAN TAMBINI
LSE MEDIA POLICY PROJECT
@DAMIANTAMBINI
@LSEMEDIAPOLICY

3. Freedom of Expression
Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right
shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and
impart information and ideas without interference by public
authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not
prevent States from requiring the licensing of
broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.
The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties
and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities,
conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by
law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the
interests of national security, territorial integrity or public
safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the
protection of health or morals, for the protection of the
reputation or the rights of others, for preventing the
disclosure of information received in confidence, or for
maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
European Convention on Human Rights Article 10

4. International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights
• Article 19
• 1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without
interference.
• 2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this
right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either
orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any
other media of his choice.
• 3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this
article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may
therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only
be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
• (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;
• (b) For the protection of national security or of public order
(ordre public), or of public health or morals.

5. http://mirror.wikileaks.info/
• “WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization
dedicated to bringing important news and
information to the public. We provide an
innovative, secure and anonymous way for
independent sources around the world to leak
information to our journalists. We publish material
of ethical, political and historical significance
while keeping the identity of our sources
anonymous, thus providing a universal way for
the revealing of suppressed and censored
injustices.”

6. truth
regulators
institutions
The market owners
editors
readers
source
subject
News Values
Ethical codes
Responsible for what and
whom?
To what extent are
privileges enjoyed?

7. The Phases
1. Automatic publication/ wiki structure with user-
editing 2006-2007
2. Strategic/ idiosyncratic editorial selection 2007-2010
3. Editorial selection and redaction based on public
interest, with limited ethical application and media
partnership 2010-
3.a. Global Media Partnership
4. Irresponsible Dumping? August 2011-
5. Post the cables. Post Assange?

8. Some difficult cases for Wikileaks on
the Diplomatic cables
• Revealing sources of US intelligence may put them at risk
• Revealing key strategic information about ‘national
security’ might put lives at risk

9. National Security
• List of Critical Foreign Dependencies abroad:
The ‘Terrorist Hit list’
• Secret forces deployment in
Pakistan
Negotiations over redactions

13. Johannesburg Principles on national
security and freedom of expression
(1996)
• “any restriction on expression …that a government seeks to
justify on grounds of national security must have the genuine
purpose and demonstrable effect of protecting a legitimate
national security interest.”
• “In particular, a restriction sought to be justified on the ground
of national security is not legitimate if its genuine purpose or
demonstrable effect is to protect interests unrelated to national
security, including for example, to protect a government from
embarrassment or exposure of wrongdoing, or to conceal
information about the functioning of its public institutions or to
entrench a particular ideology or suppress industrial unrest”
• The Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access
to Information. The ARTICLE 19 International Standards Series. London 1996

14. • “Appealing to national traditions of fair play in
the conduct of news reporting
misunderstands what Wikileaks is about: the
release of information without regard for
national interest. In media history up to now,
the press is free to report on what the
powerful wish to keep secret because the
laws of a given nation protect it. But Wikileaks
is able to report on what the powerful wish to
keep secret because the logic of the Internet
permits it.” (Clay Shirky, 2010).

15. Wikileaks: A Structural Shift?
• Escapes Jurisdiction ? Globalisation
• Protection of sources – by software code (encryption) not
ethical code. Technology
• Understanding Wikileaks as a model, not an institution

16. Legitimate National Security
Interest
• “..to protect a country’s existence or its territorial integrity
against the use or threat of force, or its capacity to
respond to the use of threat of force, whether from an
external source, such as a military threat, or an internal
source, such as incitement to violent overthrow of the
government” (Johannesburg Principles 2a).

17. Justification of Publication?
Public Interest vs Interest in restriction?

19. Information that may legitimately be withheld
• Information can be withheld if:
1.If such restrictions comply with these Principles
2.If the information is held by a public authority and
3.If the information falls within given categories, eg:
-ongoing defence plans
-information about specific measures to safeguard the
territory of the state, critical infrastructure, or critical
national institutions… the effectiveness of which depend
on secrecy. (Principle 9).
-information pertaining to, or derived from, the operations,
sources and methods of intelligence services, insofar as
they concern national security matters

20. Information where there is a
presumption in favour of publication
• Including illegal surveillance

21. Conclusions
• Global media – global ethics?
• How long will evasion of jurisdiction be permitted to
continue?
• Can a ‘post national’ code for (1) the public interest in
disclosure and (2) national security be developed?