Wikileaks Champions Whistle Blowing After U.S. Court Triumph

Wikileaks champions whistle blowing after US court triumph

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Wikilea..._03032008.html

Published: Monday March 3, 2008

Wikileaks was championing nameless whistle blowers with renewed vigor Monday after a US judge ruled efforts to shut down the website violated Constitutional rights to free speech.

Wikileaks is striving to be an "uncensorable" online compendium of "untraceable" documents that expose wrongdoing but not identities of those providing the information, its creators say in a website posting.

"Wikileaks.org is back," the posting says, claiming to have more than 1.2 million documents from dissident communities and anonymous sources.

"Our primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations."

Julius Baer & Co. on February 15 convinced federal judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco to issue an injunction ordering the website to shut down.

The Swiss bank went after Wikileaks in court after the website posted copies of internal documents indicating the company helped customers launder money illegally through the Cayman Islands.

Julius Baer denies any such accusations and argued in court that Wikipedia was violating law by displaying its private paperwork online.

White sided with the bank until a Friday hearing at which attorneys defending Wikileaks convinced him to lift his injunction in the name of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.