WikiLeaks: the illusion of transparency

• Published in: International review of administrative sciences Vol. 78; no. 1; pp. 116 - 133
• Main Author: Roberts, Alasdair
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.03.2012; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Access to information; Accountability; Advocacy; Digital technology; E-government; Government agencies; Radicalism; Secrecy; Studies; Transparency; WikiLeaks; United States > US; e-government; administration and democracy; accountability; transparency
• ISSN: 0020-8523; 1461-7226
• DOI: 10.1177/0020852311429428

It has been said that the 2010 WikiLeaks disclosures mark ‘the end of secrecy in the old fashioned, cold-war-era sense’. This is not true. Advocates of WikiLeaks have overstated the scale and significance of the leaks. They also overlook many ways in which the simple logic of radical transparency – leak, publish, and wait for the inevitable outrage – can be defeated in practice. WikiLeaks only created the illusion of a new era in transparency. In fact the 2010 leaks revealed the obstacles to achievement of increased transparency, even in the digital age. Points for practitioners Some commentators have regarded the WikiLeaks disclosures of 2010 as evidence of a broader breakdown in the conventional mechanisms for controlling government-held information. This new world has been described as one of ‘radical transparency’. But claims about the breakdown of old-style secrecy are overwrought. This article says that the significance of the WikiLeaks disclosures has been exaggerated, and provides reasons why it will be harder to achieve radical transparency, especially in the security sector of government.