African whistle-blower website afriLeaks is hosted in another country, which means it is safe from African government subpoenas.<\/p>\n
Whistle-blowers can leak documents and information securely to media houses on afriLeaks. (Reuters)<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
She did not have access to a secure server to which she would have been able to upload the documents anonymously. <\/p>\n
Like her, anyone wanting to share sensitive information with a newspaper has run the risk of detection by governments, companies or hackers. <\/p>\n
But now whistle-blowers can leak documents and information securely to media houses on a website called afriLeaks. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
How does it work? AfriLeaks is a website based in the Netherlands. As a would-be whistle-blower, you would go tosecure.afrileaks.org. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Unless you chose to reveal your identity, there is no way for the M&G to know who you are. <\/p>\n
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