"It is a “scandal” when the Government conceals things it is doing without any legitimate basis for that secrecy. Each and every document that is revealed by WikiLeaks which has been improperly classified — whether because it’s innocuous or because it is designed to hide wrongdoing — is itself an improper act, a serious abuse of government secrecy powers. Because we’re supposed to have an open government — a democracy — everything the Government does is presumptively public, and can be legitimately concealed only with compelling justifications. That’s not just some lofty, abstract theory; it’s central to having anything resembling “consent of the governed.” But we have completely abandoned that principle; we’ve reversed it. Now, everything the Government does is presumptively secret; only the most ceremonial and empty gestures are made public. That abuse of secrecy powers is vast, deliberate, pervasive, dangerous and destructive. That’s the abuse that WikiLeaks is devoted to destroying, and which its harshest critics — whether intended or not — are helping to preserve. There are people who eagerly want that secrecy regime to continue: namely, (a) Washington politicians, Permanent State functionaries, and media figures whose status, power and sense of self-importance are established by their access and devotion to that world of secrecy, and (b) those who actually believe that — despite (or because of) all the above acts — the U.S. Government somehow uses this extreme secrecy for the Good. Having surveyed the vast suffering and violence they have wreaked behind that wall, those are exactly the people whom WikiLeaks is devoted to undermining."

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Whilst it’s true that Wikileaks does pose many potential problems for governments (in terms of security risks) I find it difficult to argue with the sound logic of this writeup.

I think it’s always important to be critical and cognizant of the implications of governmental secrecy. As with all other methods of governance, democracy is a process that will, if left unattended, atrophy into a form of despotism where power is accumulated increasingly in the hands of a few.

While it could be said that that the government often assumes the role of information ‘gate-keepers’, active democratic citizenship should involve a strong initiative for gate-watching. Governmental accountability and transparency are at the very core of democratic ideals, which are themselves built upon a foundation of designated consent by the people, representative leadership, and a dedication towards the perpetuation of this elective reciprocity - not in the efforts to erode it.