Posting secrets of a different sort...

I still remember the day I discovered the Posts Secrets website - I voyeuristic-ally read the secrets posted and visited regularly to have a peek into personal confessions and fantasies, never bold enough to post any of my own, but identifying with several.

Found another site today also intent on posting secrets but of a different sort - it's the Wikileaks site. Having won a recent Amnesty award, Wikileaks defines itself as a multi-jurisdictional organization to protect internal dissidents, whistleblowers, journalists and bloggers who face legal or other threats related to publishing. They go on to state that their 'primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East'.

First heard about Wikileaks from a friend who was relating a story from Kenya which had been posted and in return caused quite some waves in the Kenyan papers and wider society. The controversy surrounded a book , Its Our Turn To Eat, written by Kenya's former anti-corruption chief, John Githongo and Michela Wrong (also of In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz fame - interesting read on the Congo and Moboutu) and elaborated in detail corruption at the highest levels in the government and implicated others.

Thumbing through countries at random - well not so random as I did look at Ghana and Jamaica - countries like Kenya do seem to have more substantial compilation of 'evidence', with much more recent references to the not so recent (anymore) elections. Wondered about the reason for the difference. Less leaks? More active journalists and bloggers? More active civil society? Would be interesting to know.