El mundo de la comunicacón pública y el mundo en general ya no puede ser el mismo tras la aparición del fenómeno WikiLeaks y las reacciones que ha suscitado, de todo tipo. Algunas de ellas, según parece, son menos inocentes de lo que hubiera podido pensarse.
El caso es que sigue la polémica, aunque no en los "grandes medios", porque quizá son precisamente ellos (Guardian, NYTimes) los directamente implicados como no respetuosos con la palabra dada.
El documental emitido en noviembre pasado por Channel 4, "WikiLeaks: Secrets and Lies", según puede leerse a continuación, contiene errores y ausencias, y tras su emisión desapareció de su web, sin fecha o indicación de reemisión.
Sin embargo, ha reaparecido en el canal Arte, en francés y alemán, de modo que puede ser públicamente visto en estas lenguas, y el espectador puede hacerse cargo de la resurrección de la polémica en algunos medios de esos países:
Esto escribe m_cetera, en el blog directamente interesado en WikiLeaks (The Continued Controversy over "WikiLeaks: Secrets and Lies"):
On November 29, a documentary entitled "WikiLeaks: Secrets and Lies" aired on Channel 4 in the UK. The film promised to be the "definitive account of the 'wiki-saga'," uniting the "major protagonists" and featuring the "first major television interview" with Julian Assange. But the documentary soon became a topic of controversy when WikiLeaks released a press statement commenting on The Guardian’s involvement in the production and providing a list of the incorrect and misleading information presented in the film. The statement also included telephonic and written communications between Julian Assange and the documentary’s director, Patrick Forbes.
Shortly after its original airing, Channel 4 made "WikiLeaks: Secrets and Lies" available via its online broadcasting channel 4oD, but it has since been removed. The documentary has also not been rerun by Channel 4 since its original air date.
After its initial broadcast, the film seemed to quickly fall into obscurity. It wasn’t until February 14, when ARTE aired the documentary in France and Germany, that the controversy resurfaced.
Holger Stark, Der Spiegel journalist and author of "Staatsfeind WikiLeaks," sent out a series of three tweets commenting on the documentary, shortly after its broadcast on ARTE:
Patrick Forbes' documentary on #Wikileaks misses one central point: Guardian and NYT planned in Oct. 2011 to publish#cablegate without WL.
Holger Stark@holger_starkThe meeting on Nov.1, 2011 was #SPIEGEL 's attempt to bring#Wikileaks and Guardian and NYT back on the table. to avoid a public desaster.
We spoke about this point extensively with the filmmaker. Unfortunately he did cut it out. #wikileaks #cablegate
(Note: He also corrected that the dates he listed should be 2010, not 2011.)
This series of tweets is rather important as it attests to Julian Assange's claims of betrayal by the New York Times and The Guardian. In a recent series of video interviews with NYTimes eXaminer, Assange retold the events thusly:
"We had given a copy of Cablegate […] in encrypted formant to The Guardian as safekeeping under a contract. The contact saying that they could not publish anything until we told them to; that they could not share it with anyone else, had to keep it strictly confidential and protect it; and that they could not keep an internet-connected computer system. […] Almost immediately, the brother-in-law of the editor-in-chief took all the material and gave it to the New York Times. […] And even that might not have been so bad if we were told about it. But we weren’t told about it. They conspired in secret to do this and to publish it all without even telling us."
Not only that, but by excluding these plans to publish behind WikiLeaks' back, it further confirms that this documentary is not balanced, but leans heavily in favor of The Guardian. Add this to the exclusion of David Leigh’s publication of the Cablegate password, the nearly 30 minutes of the 73 minute film spent with interviews of Guardian employees (compared to less than 9 minutes of Julian Assange, the only current WikiLeaks staffer interviewed), and the consultation with David Leigh for fact-checking, it’s hard to see "WikiLeaks: Secrets and Lies" as being the "definitive account" it claims to be.
In further developments, WikiLeaks announced via Twitter that OFCOM, the regulator for broadcasting in the UK, had officially declared a formal investigation into "WikiLeaks: Secrets and Lies" on February 14. No further information about the investigation has yet to become available.
The documentary is also planned for multiple U.S. screenings. CNBC has the film scheduled for broadcast on March 1. The Austin-based SXSW Film Festival, a huge conference which draws over20,000 attendees, also plans to air the documentary on March 9. In the summary, the film is described as "a definitive factual account of the WikiLeaks affair." This screening was brought to attention by Bill Keller, well-known for his attacks on WikiLeaks and Assange, in his February 19 article "WikiLeaks, A Postscript."
This article originally written for The WikiLeaks Forum
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