WikiLeaks is free speech

It's little surprise that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has found himself in trouble. People in high places like to keep their secrets. But secrecy is incompatible with democracy and an open society. Maybe that doesn't mean there should be no secrecy. But it does mean there should be people fighting relentlessly to bring the truth out into the open.

It's revealing that the same people that promoted corporate funding of independent political broadcasts as free speech deny the same label to WikiLeaks.

I'm reminded of what happened to Eliot Spitzer when he pissed off the wrong people. He was taken down by a hooker scandal after a bank reported a suspicious wire transfer.

• WikiLeaks at the Guardian
• The Beginner's Guide to WikiLeaks
• How to Think About WikiLeaks
• Julian Assange and the Computer Conspiracy; “To destroy this invisible government”
• A defense of WikiLeaks: Some inconvenient facts