Hypocrisy Under Pressure

I am sure that someone has undoubtedly said it with far more elegance than I, but it is far easier to condemn behaviour in another than to take the same approach upon enacting the same.

I am referring with this to the current WikiLeaks scandal, and in particular some of the reaction to it. While there is much about the release of the information that is questionable, on the face of it there is no different in this release compared to others in times past. What has changed is the scope of technology changing the volume of what can be easily revealed, and the method of dispersion.

Without modern technology allowing for hundreds of thousands of files to be readily copied and transported, and the internet allowing a convenient place for the dissemination of this information, we are in the same place as every leak throughout history. Had these leaks been passed through folios of paper and published entirely through the printed press, would the reaction have been the same? Would the urge to deny finance and lodging to printing companies be deemed appropriate to punish them for their revelations?

The predominant issue to me is that of hypocrisy. Let noone doubt that the United States of America is passionately against abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. However, government figures have brought significant pressure to bear to impugn this very freedom. Following the arrest of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, he seems likely to be transported beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses.

Had this leak been of sensative Chinese materials, and the story published in Xinhua and hosted on Baidu, and had the Chinese authorities acted to ensure this material was removed from these sites - again, let noone doubt that the United States' stance would have been passionately opposed to this outrageous 'censorship' of our mirror scenario.

The hypocrisy is unsurprising, but it is nevertheless still disquieting.