"One of the great victories for civil society will be when all the black boxes have been turned to glass. The black boxes of government to the people, the black boxes of corporations to the investors, and the black boxes of the NGOs who lobby the former and spin for the latter." - Me, last December.
If one can be defined by one's enemies, Julian Assange of Wikileaks is hated by all the right people; the Cayman Islands, the US, Dubai, Switzerland. The Australian authorities have recently added their name to the nemesis list after Wikileaks embarrassed their internet filter list clumsiness. The Aussie utu involved confiscating Assange's passport. Aardvark has more.
Up until quite recently, I would have suggested to Assange that if the Oz government remains pissy with him, he's always welcome in NZ. NZ used to have a competitive advantage on the freedom of information compared with many other jurisdictions. However, the secret police reshuffle going on might have changed all that. It seems our government fears its citizens just as much as every other one.
We offer all the best to Wikileaks and Assange. May you backpack on the graves of secrecy for a long time yet.
