Techrights
The Interplay Between Free Software and Journalism Based on Truths, Suppressed Facts
Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 19, 2025
People who say "open source" also like to focus on "transparency" even though the main and original objective was freedom* for users, developers, and so on. It's about people exercising control (sometimes collective control, e.g. as an NGO or company might do) over all the computers. The "transparency" aspect (being able to see the code) is applicable but not the most important aspect. It's not a fantastic selling point either.
In journalism, "transparency" typically means either imposing "transparency" on those who work/operate/conspire in the dark (against the interests of others) or embracing "transparency" to show sources, evidence etc. That's why we share IRC logs every day. We believe that transparency (in the latter sense of the term) assures higher quality and standards. We also try to adhere to source protection; this can be achieved by redaction, which does not necessarily go against transparency because sometimes without some redaction a disclosure of evidence is infeasible.
Our standards of reporting seem to be really pissing off people from Microsoft. Some of them lost their jobs over it, so they're just looking for "revenge" now. Worry not, however, those acts of desperation are "A Gift That Keeps on Giving" as it legitimises our work and demonstrates its true value. If bad people fall, then we're doing something right.
We intend to maintain a high level of transparency; this means that we'll eventually report on all the extortion and censorship attempts. The greater the extortion and censorship, the greater the Streisand Effect will be. I'm hardly new to journalism (this site is an adult) and I know too well how so-called 'Streisand Effect' works. In the past 24 hours traffic in the site was about 50% higher than usual - we attribute that to gagging efforts.
When it comes to Software Freedom, we do our best to share all our code. We have our own Git repository and we make everything in it accessible over Gemini Protocol, even the latest changes.
Honest people can be transparent. Dishonest, rogue people rely on a lack of it. That's why the current US administration - like the one in Moscow - detests journalism as much as it hates true transparency. Reprehensible acts flourish in darkness. User-hostile code - likewise - 'prefers' to remain proprietary not so much for business reasons but secrecy. █
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- Notice the title of my interview with Richard Stallman 18 years ago: (local copy)
