Reply #3: I completely support academics' right to privacy. But diplomats [View All]

[pnwmom]

who are "just doing their job" should have the same right to privacy in their internal communications, the same right to debate privately, to confer privately, and to develop their ideas. But most DUers applauded the leaking of hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. (I'm not referring to the Iraq war documents, I'm specifically referring to the diplomatic cables.)

The Chancellor's statement could have been easily re-written to apply to diplomatic e-mails:

"We are also excluding what we consider to be the private email exchanges among diplomats that fall within the orbit of diplomatic communications and all that is entailed by it. Diplomacy requires the freedom to pursue knowledge and develop lines of argument without fear of reprisal for controversial findings and without the premature disclosure of those ideas. Diplomats pursue knowledge by way of open exchange of views. Without a zone of privacy within which to conduct and protect their work, diplomats would not be able to conduct sensitive negations or make discoveries. Lively, even heated and acrimonious debates over policy, are essential elements of diplomatic work."

On the other hand, I don't blame Wikileaks for publishing what was handed to them. I do blame Bradley Manning, or whoever was responsible, for leaking to them.