The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Northern California and the EFF have filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit that led a federal district judge to order the shutdown of Wikileaks.org, according to this ACLU press release.
The motion is on behalf of organizations and individuals that have accessed and used documents on the Wikileaks.org website in their work and want to continue to be able to do so.
"The court's order shuts down and locks up the domain name Wikileaks.org permanently, effectively interfering with the public's ability to access the materials on the website as easily as possible," said Aden Fine, senior staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group. "The public has a right to receive information and ideas, especially ones concerning the public interest. This injunction ignores that vital First Amendment principle."
The Wikileaks website was established to allow participants to anonymously disclose documents of public interest, including materials discussing such issues of national importance as U.S. Army operations at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, human rights abuses in China, and political corruption in Kenya. Earlier this month, Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California ordered domain registrar Dynadot, LLC to shut down the domain name Wikileaks.org based on allegations that a former employee of Swiss Bank Julius Baer posted documents on the website that highlighted the bank's dealings in the Cayman Islands.
(thanks, Ravi Garla)
Previously on BB:
