FAS

Der Spiegel on “Staatsfeind WikiLeaks”

02.09.11 | 1 min read | Text by Steven Aftergood

“Aftergood is too close to the center of power,” said Julian Assange.  “He is not an independent fighter for freedom of information.”

The passing criticism of me (I’m also “jealous”) was the first thing that caught my eye in the new book “Staatsfeind WikiLeaks” by Der Spiegel reporters Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark.  But the book itself is quite a bit more interesting and perceptive than that.

The authors, who are neither fans nor opponents of WikiLeaks, go out of their way to gather new information about the origins and development of the project.  They seek out contrasting perspectives and bring them to bear in interesting and challenging ways.  Of course, the story is unfinished.

“WikiLeaks is an organization in transition, with a dialectical relation to the mass media.  WikiLeaks has changed journalism, but journalism has also changed WikiLeaks,” they write.

See the Spiegel website on “Staatsfeind WikiLeaks” here.  An English-language excerpt, published last month, is here.