Wikileaks isn't the answer to problems like this. If you have to rely on a dubiously ethical web site that tries to position itself outside the law, some pretty fundamental things have already gone wrong.
For a start, we have to ask why the legal power exists to seal records in this way, who has the authority to order such seals, and what kind of oversight exists to make independent determinations about whether such seals are in the public interest.
> For a start, we have to ask why the legal power exists to seal records in this way
That is exactly the key.
The fact that a government can put itself above any sort of public inquiry for 70 years is completely counter to what any respectable democracy should stand for.
If you have to rely on a dubiously ethical web site that tries to position itself outside the law, some pretty fundamental things have already gone wrong.
Correct. I pay Wikileaks to be explicitly unethical, for that very reason.
It's like someone said elsewhere in the thread: if governments have nothing to hide, then they have nothing to fear, right?
The problem with this argument is that sometimes people, governments, businesses or whoever else do have something to hide, and sometimes they are hiding those things for honest, legitimate reasons. But sites like Wikileaks don't tend to pay much attention to that.
Well it might be more useful for your argument if you discussed particular instances where wikileaks has published material that you consider hidden legitimately.
One obvious example was publishing the membership records of the BNP.
You and I might not share their political views, but violating the privacy/anonymity of members of any political party is not the way forward, particularly when such violation will inevitably lead to sanctions that are at best dubiously ethical themselves.
For a start, we have to ask why the legal power exists to seal records in this way, who has the authority to order such seals, and what kind of oversight exists to make independent determinations about whether such seals are in the public interest.