Wikileaks hacked ahead of new document release

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by DarkFish

Aye. The public has a right to know what the government does. If the government can secretly do whatever they like, without caring about what the public thinks, without caring what the public voted for, then what's the difference from a dictatorship?

Not that I am disagreeing with you (nor agreeing with you for that matter), but when people throw out the word "Right", I like to ask them for their source.

Where is it written that the public has a right to know specific details about what their government does?

The whole concept of a representative government is so that the public does not need to know all the details. The public elects representatives and these representatives are empowered by the public to make decisions on behalf of the citizens. If the decisions are not in agreement with the citizens, in a representative government, the citizens can elect someone else. But I am not aware of any policy that allows the public to know specific details of what the government does, especially when it comes to national security.

So why do you think the public has a "right" to know everything that their government does?

A desire to know, sure. But really a "right"?