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Chinese activists to launch
whistleblower Web site
AFP, HONG KONG
Chinese activists are planning to launch a whistleblowing Web site modeled on
WikiLeaks, in a bid to expose state secrets and spur political reform, the South
China Morning Post reported yesterday.
The activists, who are using social networking sites like Twitter to mobilize
and call on people to upload classified information to their database, said they
plan to launch the ¡§Government Leaks¡¨ site on June 1 next year, the paper said.
The site¡¦s founder ¡X identified only as ¡§Deep Throat¡¨ ¡X said the Web site would
go online just days ahead of the 22nd anniversary of the bloody June 4 crackdown
on democracy protests in Beijing¡¦s Tiananmen square.
¡§I think that by making government secrets open, we can promote democracy in
China,¡¨ he told the English-language daily. ¡§This is a fight against
dictatorship, and to return the right to information to the people. I believe it
will advance China¡¦s political reform.¡¨
¡§Deep Throat¡¨ said that he had originally wanted to team up with WikiLeaks, but
that e-mails sent to the Web site had bounced back undelivered.
¡§Government Leaks has no relation with WikiLeaks, but you can call us a copycat
version of WikiLeaks in China,¡¨ he told the paper, adding that the site would
continue to approach WikiLeaks for help.
A team of experts has been enlisted to run the China-based site, including
journalists, editors, lawyers and hackers, who will safeguard against likely
attempts by government censors to shut it down, the site¡¦s founder said.
The Web site is expected to anger Beijing, which heavily monitors Internet
traffic and restricts freedom of speech.
Beijing operates a vast system of Web censorship, sometimes referred to as the
¡§Great Firewall of China.¡¨ It blocks access to any content the government deems
unacceptable, ranging from pornography to political dissent.
A number of leading Chinese bloggers have voiced their concern about Government
Leaks, saying it could expose whistleblowers to severe punishment from the
authorities/
¡§In the worst case, the informer could be prosecuted for illegally possessing
state secrets,¡¨ wrote a blogger who identified himself as Zola.
The Government Leaks founder said the group would avoid using normal e-mail
channels to communicate with informers and was studying the use of high-security
technologies to receive sensitive information.
¡§Deep Throat¡¨ said he was inspired by the US Watergate scandal of the 1970s,
which eventually led to the resignation of then-US president Richard Nixon, as
well as the recent success of WikiLeaks.
¡§Deep Throat¡¨ was the -pseudonym of an informant ¡X identified three decades
later as a senior FBI official ¡X who leaked sensitive information about the
Nixon administration¡¦s involvement in the scandal.
WikiLeaks gained widespread notoriety in July when it published nearly 77,000
classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan, provoking the wrath
of the Pentagon.
Wikileaks is imminently expected to release some 400,000 secret military reports
on the US-led Iraq war.
Founded in 2006 by Australian Julian Assange, WikiLeaks first grabbed headlines
when it released a graphic video of a US military Apache helicopter strike in
Baghdad in 2007 that killed two journalists and a dozen civilians, that
attracted international attention.
Last month, Assange, 39, was accused of rape in Sweden. He dismissed the
allegations as part of a ¡§smear campaign¡¨ aimed at discrediting WikiLeaks.
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