Afrileaks wants to make online whistle-blowing safe in Africa

It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that, at its height, Wikileaks changed the dynamic of global politics. Now a joint project of the African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting in collaboration with the Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights is looking to bring the power of anonymous whistleblowing to the regional level.

The project, called Afrileaks, claims to allow people to securely leak confidential documents of public interest. The site also allows users to select which of its member organisations should investigate it and provides means of staying in touch and answering further questions without revealing names or contact information.

While people will obviously try to draw links between the service and Wikileaks, it is keen to differentiate what it does from the Julian Assange-founded service. While Wikileaks publishes leaked documents directly, Afrileaks aims to connect whistle-blowers to media houses who can use their leaks as the basis of major journalistic investigations.

The media houses, which include South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, Botswana’s Guardian newspaper, The Zimbabwean, and Mozambique’s Verdade are themselves reportedly heavily vetted. According to Afrileaks, anyone wanting to be a part of the service must meet several criteria, including excellence in investigative journalism, integrity in content and investigative processes and geographic relevance.

As the Guardian reports, journalists from each of the organisations involved have also been given training in how to safely deal with leaked information.

Among the skills taught to the journalists are sourcing and cross-examination, and how to assess for consistency, bias, contradiction, reliability and metadata.

“Too often, corruption and human rights violations go unreported in Africa because of the risks faced by sources,” Global Witness journalist Lee Baldwin told The Guardian. “By connecting leakers directly with trusted partners, Afrileaks provides a way for local and international journalists to work together to expose abuses and get important stories out.”

The service also provides support designed to help whistle-blowers protect their own identities. “You should be aware that whenever you use a computer, mobile phone or the internet, or other forms of communication, most of these actions will leave traces”, it warns before listing a number of steps that can be taken in order to wipe out as many of those traces as possible.

A large part of the site’s ability to provide a secure, anonymous space for whistle-blowing comes from the fact that it goes through the Tor network. While it is excellent in this regard, it does have the disadvantage of slowing the network down.