HE HAS perfected the art of spilling other people's secrets, butJulian Assange's appearance last night at the Cambridge UnionSociety (CUS) was a far from transparent affair.
The layers of security surrounding the talk - his first publicappearance since last month losing round one of his battle againstextradition to Sweden - were so tight that the US State Departmentmight have learned a thing or two about how to control the flow ofinformation. Pasted on the walls outside the debating chamber werestern warnings to any students intending to live stream the contentsof the WikiLeaks founder's lecture. "It is illegal to film,photograph, or record," the signs read. "You will be evicted andhave your membership revoked."
Student journalists from the university's two papers werepermitted to attend. But national media were told they were barredfrom the lecture, which was both a defence of WikiLeaks and adetailed account of what Mr Assange claimed was his organisation'scrucial role in sparking pro-democracy protests in the Middle East.
Referring to the fruit-seller from Tunisia who set himself alightin protest at government corruption, Mr Assange said: "His act tookwhat was an online [campaign] about what was happening in Tunisiaand expressed it in physical form. The cables showed the US wouldsupport the military over the Tunisian regime. This changed thedynamic between reformists and regimists."
In front of a packed debating chamber, Mr Assange expressed fearsthat cyberspace had its limits and was used by repressive states tomonitor opposition voices as much as it is to leak importantinformation. "While the internet has a massive power to holdgovernment to account, it is also the greatest spying machine evermade," he said. "It is not a technology that favours freedom ofspeech."
At the start of his speech, however, Mr Assange, who is understrict bail conditions, had expressed misgivings about therestriction on reporting. "It seems to me that their restriction onrecording is a bit rough, but I support it to a degree," he said."Otherwise it would have become a press conference." In a referenceto his bail conditions he remarked that it was good "to get out ofthe house".
One of the country's most famous debating chambers, the CUS hashosted Winston Churchill, the Dalai Lama and Ronald Reagan."Sometimes we let the press in but most of the time we don't" saidCUS president Lauren Davidson. "We are a private members' club, andwe aim to give our members the opportunity to engage with the mostinteresting and influential figures in today's society," she added.When asked whether Mr Assange himself had asked for a mediablackout, Ms Davidson replied: "It is a decision we made together."
Among the audience members, themselves, opinions of Mr Assangewere sharply divided. "Overall I think what he's done isremarkable," said Jonathan Lee, a 20-year-old maths student fromTrinity Hall. "I think he's shown us that governments try to keepvast amounts of information secret and that most of it should be outin public."
Mr Lee had barely finished speaking when his friend, 18-year-oldlaw student Chris Monk, replied: "Oh come on, most of the stuff thatwas released we already knew about. And you can't disagree with theidea that some information needs to be kept secret. I mean, whatpossible good was there in releasing that list of top terroristtargets?"
Others expressed concern about Mr Assange's personaltransparency.
"I respect him as a person, for what he has done and whatWikiLeaks has published," said Robin McGhee, a 19-year-old Oxfordstudent who lives in Cambridge. "But as someone who stands foropenness and transparency, I have serious reservations about howclosed he is about his own story."
Mr Assange - a 39-year-old Australian-born former hacker - isappealing against an English magistrate's decision to extradite himto Sweden to answer accusations that he sexually assaulted two womenlast year.
Mr Assange denies the allegations and says the charges againsthim are part of a wider political conspiracy to silence hisorganisation's whistle-blowing activities.
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