The blame rests squarely with governments abusing the trust that citizens normally give them. There has been a tendency over the last bunch of years of increasing government secrecy.
Here in Canada we've had a de-facto Information Minister for quite some time. Any government official that wishes to speak about anything must submit a request to the PM's Communications Director, who'll edit it, vet it and put an appropriate political spin on it. Whereas it was expected that Ministers, MPs and other government officials would stop by and chat with reporters after the daily parliamentary session, this is not allowed anymore. Everything is a scripted, fake photo-op and journalists frequently are only allowed to ask pre-approved questions. So what's the end result? We can't trust anything these people say, we can't get answers, we just get infantile bullshit thrown at us. It is not just Canada, the Washington Post's "Top Secret America" shows you have similar problems down south as well.
Maybe you're fine with the way things are, but I and many others certainly are not. The way to bring about change isn't to politely sit around saying you'd like something to change - you go ahead and do what you think is right. And I do hope Assange's latest leak hurts governments - maybe after they've been burnt enough times, they'll learn to be more open, transparent and accountable so that when they do actually need privacy, the people will trust them.
Now excuse me while I go donate a few bucks to wikileaks.
What good is chatting to the media if they will go, edit the interview and show whatever they want that fits their own agenda? I don't know if this is a problem in Canada but it certainly is in my country and I know that it is an issue in the US.
Personally, I can understand why the public figures would not want to talk to the media. However, I don't understand why they aren't finding new ways to communicate more directly with the public.
Here in Canada we've had a de-facto Information Minister for quite some time. Any government official that wishes to speak about anything must submit a request to the PM's Communications Director, who'll edit it, vet it and put an appropriate political spin on it. Whereas it was expected that Ministers, MPs and other government officials would stop by and chat with reporters after the daily parliamentary session, this is not allowed anymore. Everything is a scripted, fake photo-op and journalists frequently are only allowed to ask pre-approved questions. So what's the end result? We can't trust anything these people say, we can't get answers, we just get infantile bullshit thrown at us. It is not just Canada, the Washington Post's "Top Secret America" shows you have similar problems down south as well.
Maybe you're fine with the way things are, but I and many others certainly are not. The way to bring about change isn't to politely sit around saying you'd like something to change - you go ahead and do what you think is right. And I do hope Assange's latest leak hurts governments - maybe after they've been burnt enough times, they'll learn to be more open, transparent and accountable so that when they do actually need privacy, the people will trust them.
Now excuse me while I go donate a few bucks to wikileaks.