Last Saturday I took part in a Wikileaks event organised with great speed and extraordinary flair by Personal Democracy forum; the video archives are here for anyone who wants to watch the whole thing. It was a shame that there were no representatives of Government in the room, and another panel organised with a greater lead time would have found maybe more international voices. But it was as useful and stimulating an event I have been to for a long time.
I will be writing about the most interesting parts of the debate (as I see them) over the coming days and weeks
Emily Bell(wether) 
These debates seem to be absent from tv news reporting though. They just don’t seem to be interested in the wider discussions and are happy to stick to an establishment view.
I don’t know how the BBC director general Mark Thompson can publicly say that Britain needs more opinionated channels like Fox News.
If anything the last 10 years has shown me that we need more factual reporting and analysis. John Naughton points out in his blog that the reporting centred around Wikileaks is eerily familiar to the kind seen prior to the Iraq war – fear mongering and holding an establishment line.
Maybe the mirror being help up by the press is too cracked to see a reflection at all…
Hi Emily —
I stumbled across your blog from the Guardian’s link to your Assange post and I’ve checked back occasionally since then.
Bit of a weird request here, but I promise I’m not cyber stalking you!
I didn’t see your contact info but I was hoping I might ask you to weigh in on what I call the lack of enlightenment amongst the American public, how the media plays into that, and how to solve the problem.
I understand you’re a busy woman, but if you don’t mind my explaining more and asking a few questions to pick your brain a little, would you send me a quick email?
Thanks,
Patrick
Hi Patrick – the best contact for me is ebell@columbia.edu…sorry for the delay in replying, despite best efforts christmas is the enemyy of blog tending