Trend European Desk Commentator Elmira Tariverdiyeva
The one country which has always fiercely defended freedom of speech is now having to endure all of the "charms" of full publicity. A quarter of a million secret diplomatic telegrams and letters sent from U.S. diplomatic missions situated in various countries to the U.S. State Department have been leaked this week and put the country's reliability as a partner under question.
According to the White House, transferring the "stolen" letters and telegrams to media outlets is a "reckless and dangerous act." The U.S. administration warned that some telegrams may disrupt the activity of the United States abroad, and jeopardize the work and even the lives of confidential sources of U.S diplomats in the case of publication.
Some documents received by New York Times and several other influential U.S. and European media have already been published. The documents marked as "secret" disclose the details of the correspondence of President Barack Obama's administration on various crises and conflicts. However, the most harmful facts among the leaked information is likely the harsh statements of U.S. diplomats about Muslim presidents and European leaders, quotes from supposedly private conversations between foreign leaders and U.S. officials and Hilary Clinton's demands to spy on members of the U.N. Security Council from Russia, China, France and Great Britain.
News that Clinton was trying to obtain biometric information on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the credit card numbers, e-mail addresses and phone numbers of U.N. staff looks quite damaging. According to the documents published by WikiLeaks, U.S. intelligence officials were sent to gather the information to the U.N. missions in New York, Vienna and Rome, as well as the 33 embassies of various countries, including diplomatic missions in London, Paris and Moscow.
The fact that the material will affect the relations between Washington and many countries is obvious. And, while it is one thing is to understand that the private conversations that take place with U.S. officials are far from protocol events, it is another thing completely to see the harsh remarks of U.S. diplomats and the assessments of U.S. officials. It is indeed quite frightening.
The material published by WikiLeaks is not new. Almost everything written in the telegrams was already known - including the assessments of world leaders. However, the real news is that such a strong power as the United States failed to prevent the leaking of such secret information about the confidential tasks of U.S. diplomats and their activities abroad. The next round of documents published by WikiLeaks could cause a genuine threat to the security of many countries. Many members of the global community are now likely to think heavily about freedom of speech.
The main question raised by WikiLeaks is that the concept of freedom of speech and the right to information are potentially threaten state secrets. The leaking of information by agents and illegal immigrants working in other countries is punishable by law. So, why is the disclosing of secret documents - now published for the entire world - classified as the right to information for citizens? Do ordinary citizens really need this information? The information provided by the employees of diplomatic missions, and their assessments, are very subjective. Are they really valuable to U.S. or EU citizens?
Most likely, these publications are designed to satisfy plain curiosity. Food and entertainment are the pillars of existence, just as they were thousands of years ago. The editors-in-chief of influential media do not understand that this entertainment greatly damages their own countries.
They have ignored the main postulate of morality - an oath of allegiance to their state for the sake of ratings and the notorious "freedom of publicity."