The Times: Is Wikileaks serious journalistic organisation or wrecking party?

The Times today condemned Wikileaks decision yesterday to publish a US embassy cable revealing a list of locations around the world considered vital to US security.

The Times reported the release of the cable yesterday, while the Guardian didn’t – prompting Guardian investigations editor David Leigh to post on Twitter: “Strange to see the Times publishing a sensitive Wikileaks cable which the Guardian declined to do. Murdoch is helping terrorists?”.

Today the Times said in its leader (paywall protected):

“Is WikiLeaks a serious journalistic enterprise or a wrecking party? The organisation had given the impression that it had been trying to be more responsible in the past month, after having been accused of endangering the lives of US troops and their helpers by releasing the Afghanistan war logs. But yesterday’s publication of a list of facilities deemed vital to US national security is a step back in the wrong direction.

“There is a dangerous nihilism in the refusal to distinguish between information that embarasses the powerful, and information that potentially puts lives at risk…

“Whether or not these installations are all genuinely vital to US security, publishing them is an open invitation to mischief – if not murder.”