LONDON - "Wikileaks is doing what journalists should do and not doing. Why is there so much envy. " John Pilger, the British 71enne dean of investigative journalism, also from Australia as Julian Assange, famous for his documentaries about the war in Vietnam and Cambodia, was yesterday in the hall of Westminster Magistrates Court together with the writer Tariq Ali, and director Ken Loach. All came to give support to the founder of Wikileaks. For Pilger, who celebrated the news of his release on bail of Assange, Wikileaks' is changing the face of investigative journalism. All journalists should show solidarity with Assange and his staff. Instead there is especially bothersome, since many institutions of journalism can be seen over by a group of guys with a website. "
With the arrest of Julian Assange is opening up again the debate on freedom of information. The United States who do not want the figure of the censors sostengono che Assange non è un giornalista. Lei come giornalista che cosa ne pensa?
Julian Assange sicuramente è un giornalista, come lui stesso mi ha detto. Del resto anche il suo titolo ufficiale è editor-in-chief, o capo redattore di Wikileaks. Poi chi è che decide chi è giornalista o no: il governo Usa? Stando a sentire i portavoce del governo statunitense né io né voi giornalisti de il manifesto verremmo considerati giornalisti, perché abbiamo una «linea politica». Come se i giornalisti mainstream o quelli di destra non avessero una linea politica.
Lei negli ultimi decenni è stato uno dei pionieri del giornalismo investigativo, prima come inviato speciale for the Daily Mirror and later for television. What is the real novelty of investigative journalism on the Internet?
First of all speed. Wikileaks is doing in a few days on how sensational revelations of U.S. diplomacy and the military in the past would have taken months if not years of work. It has introduced an interesting model in which journalists become "facilitators" for the dissemination of information revealed by whistleblowers (literally Whistlers, a figure codified in Anglo-Saxon world). People who work for the state and make the burning secrets because they think it is right that the public learns. With or without internet, there is no journalism without investigating these whistleblowers. And it is important that they too are protected.
Despite the importance of the information published by Wikileaks seems to be little solidarity from his fellow journalists.
The fact is that Wikileaks is embarrassing traditional journalists in recent years have been accustomed to the stenographers of power. It's a real shock to many journalistic institutions like the New York Times or the Washington Post, but also for many journalists of the Guardian, the illusion that their role was irreplaceable. To print this in envy and resentment Assange winds. But instead of getting angry should understand what is going to be an invitation to return to reveal what the government would hide from citizens.
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