Wikileaks has established a reputation for publishing sensitive materials
Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks is once again at the centre of attention. It is preparing to unveil a new set of US secret documents which it says are bigger than past releases on Afghanistan and Iraq.
It is the latest in a long list of "leaks" published by the secretive site, which has established a reputation for publishing sensitive material from governments and other high-profile organisations.- In April 2010, for example, Wikileaks posted a video on its website that shows a US Apache helicopter killing at least 12 people, including two Reuters journalists - during an attack in Baghdad in 2007.
- A US military analyst is currently awaiting trial, on charges of leaking the material along with other sensitive military and diplomatic material.
- In October 2009, it posted a list of names and addresses of people it claimed belonged to the British National Party (BNP). The BNP said the list was a "malicious forgery".
And during the 2008 US elections, it published screenshots of the e-mail inbox, pictures and address book of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.- Other controversial documents hosted on the site include a copy of the Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta, a document that detailed restrictions placed on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
It provoked controversy when it first appeared on the net in December 2006 and still splits opinion. For some it is lauded as the future of investigative journalism. For others it is a risk.In mid-March 2010 the site's director, Julian Assange (photo), published a document purportedly from the US intelligence services, claiming that Wikileaks represented a "threat to the US Army".
The US government later confirmed to the BBC that the documents were genuine.
The site now claims to host more than one million documents.- Anyone can submit to Wikileaks anonymously, but a team of reviewers - volunteers from the mainstream press, journalists and Wikileaks staff - decides what is published.
- It is operated by an organisation known as the Sunshine Press and claims to be "funded by human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists and the general public".
- Since Wikileaks first appeared on the net, it has faced various legal challenges to take it offline.
- In 2008, for example, the Swiss Bank Julius Baer won a court ruling to block the site after Wikileaks posted "several hundred" documents about its offshore activities.
However, various "mirrors" of the site - hosted on different servers around the world - continued to operate. The order was eventually overturned.- Wikileaks claims to have fought off more than "100 legal attacks" in its life, in part because of what is described as its "bulletproof hosting".
- The site is primarily hosted by Swedish ISP PeRiQuito (PRQ), which became famous for hosting file-sharing website The Pirate Bay.
- "If it is legal in Sweden, we will host it, and will keep it up regardless of any pressure to take it down," the ISP's site says.
- The site also hosts documents in other jurisdictions, including Belgium.
- Its experience of different laws around the world meant that it was drafted to help Icelandic MPs draw up plans for its Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI).
- The plan calls on the country's government to adopt laws protecting journalists and their sources.
In Asia and the rest of the world, their Government have condemned Wikileaks website's publication. Thailand authorities have used their emergency powers to block domestic access to the WikiLeaks whistleblower website on security grounds.The order came from the government unit set up to oversee the response to political unrest that rocked the nation's capital earlier this year, a spokeswoman for the Information and Communication Technology Ministry said.
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