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J-Groups, News Orgs Rally to Protest Shuttering of Wikileaks

The Wikileaks case is heating up as folks prep for Friday's hearing in federal court. The LDF Committee is supporting an effort by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the LA Times and Hearst to protest the shutting down of the whistle-blowing site last week.

As you probably know by now, Wikileaks is a site devoted to disclosing confidential information. Here's how it works: the site invites Web users to post leaked material to discourage unethical behavior by corporations and governments. This is done under the veil of Internet anonymity.

Laurie Babinski, of Baker Hostetler, gives us this summary:

The case at issue was brought in federal court in San Francisco by Julius Baier Bank and Trust, a Cayman Islands-based bank. The bank alleges that an ex-employee provided stolen documents to Wikileaks in violation of a confidentiality agreement and banking laws. Last week, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White granted a permanent injunction ordering Dynadot, the website's domain name registrar, to disable the Wikileaks.org domain name.

However, the judge's order was ineffective in many ways -- shutting down the domain name allowed the material to remain on the Internet accessible to all who have the IP address where the material is located. The site is also mirrored on other websites around the world.

The judge also issued a temporary restraining order ordering Wikileaks to take down the documents at issue.

SPJ and the other organizations signing on to this protest are concerned about what amounts to a prior restraint against a website that disseminates information.

"Obviously, the idea that someone outraged by speech on a web site can get an order telling a registrar to disable a domain name is troubling, and the judge's order to take down the bank documents is even more disturbing," Babinski notes.

Stay tuned to SPJ.org. There may be more from the Society today or tomorrow.

More background in this previous LDF Shield post.
Published Tuesday, February 26, 2008 1:16 PM by MollyMcDonough

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