AfriLeaks gives truth a fighting chance

African whistle-blower website afriLeaks is hosted in another country, which means it is safe from African government subpoenas.

Whistle-blowers can leak documents and information securely to media houses on afriLeaks. (Reuters)

In 2010, United States intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning leaked 750000 documents to the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks. These included diplomatic cables and videos of US airstrikes, which seemingly killed civilians. US military investigators quickly traced the leak back to Manning and, after a military trial, sentenced her to 35 years in prison.

She did not have access to a secure server to which she would have been able to upload the documents anonymously.

Like her, anyone wanting to share sensitive information with a newspaper has run the risk of detection by governments, companies or hackers.

But now whistle-blowers can leak documents and information securely to media houses on a website called afriLeaks.

This is a partnership between the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting, the Hermes Centre for Transparency and Digital Human Rights, based in Italy, and several media houses in Africa. The Mail & Guardian and Oxpeckers, an environmental investigative unit, are the only South African publishing houses involved.

How does it work? AfriLeaks is a website based in the Netherlands. As a would-be whistle-blower, you would go tosecure.afrileaks.org.

The website explains the best way to protect your online identity, after which you click on the blow the whistle link. You can then upload files and a message, for example, for the M&G, which is notified that a leak has been submitted.

Unless you chose to reveal your identity, there is no way for the M&G to know who you are.

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AfriLeaks gives truth a fighting chance