Wikileaking...Good or Bad?

In this weeks lecture our main focus was put upon Wikileaks, what it is and the impact it has had. I looked at past articles about Wikileaks to find out more about what it has done, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10757263, this article in particular tells us the types of information that has been posted freely on the internet because of the birth of 'Wikileaks' in 2006. It's obvious when researching the topic that it has caused much controversy since it was created. And the population seems to be split in opinion. On one hand, maybe it does give us crucial information that is helpful and informative but it also is invasive and leaks private documents that could worry a nation and government. It seems governments, in the firing line of Wikileaks, is who it worries most because it is a way of exposing their biggest secrets to the public.
From a journalistic point of view this surely can only be good news right? We are receiving inside stories, stories that could have massive consequences, and stories that are definitely of public interest. And without Wikileaks we would have no way of getting control of such stories. Therefore from my personal perspective I like the idea of Wikileaks. Not only because of its positives in the journalism field, but also because some of these secrets the public should know and they shouldn't be kept a secret.
For me, Wikileaks isn't there as a negative against the government, it is simply there as a way of serving the public, and that is what I think are its cultural vales and purposes. I can see why the government would be so against an organisation who wants to expose the things they have been desperately trying to hide from the public, but then again as long as Wikileaks is sensible about what they are exposing, i.e. they don't expose anything that might cause alarm or panic then, in my eyes, there shouldn't be much of an issue.
I have only one issue, concern or negative about Wikileaks. Does it promote the idea of hacking? It's a form of computer hacking, breaking into information that is hidden from them for a reason. In my next blog I will look to explore the idea of Hacking, both computer hacking and phone hacking and whether sites such as Wikileaks promotes these ideas.