The Fifth Estate

1

Let me

assert my firm belief...

that the only thing

we have to fear...

is fear itself.

That's one

small step for man...

This is Walter Cronkite

in our newsroom.

President Kennedy

died at 1 p.m.,

some 38 minutes ago.

...who are trying to make

a boogey out of us...

Go at throttle up.

This vehicle has exploded.

They are here in the thousands.

They are here

in the tens of thousands.

Diana,

Princess of Wales, has died.

This just in.

Television viewers

across the country

watch in astonishment...

- Oh, my goodness.

- Oh, God.

There was

a huge explosion sound.

Der Spiegel

is begging for more time.

The Times wants to go.

Let me talk to Rosenbach.

Christ,

it's like herding cats.

No, I don't want

to have to scroll down

for the Task Force 373 story.

Holger, I've got Nick.

Ah, great. Five minutes?

- We have to go.

- Five more minutes.

Yes, Bill, I know. But Nick

just spoke to Rosenbach.

They need at least

another few minutes.

No more delays, Alan.

You said twelve o' clock.

I know, but the point

is to publish together.

You know the Germans.

They need to dot all the "I's"

and cross all the "T's."

Go. Now.

It's live.

The Times is live.

Well, there you go.

Patience, humility,

all American virtues.

Yes, Bill, thanks very much

for not giving a sh*t.

Go.

Of course, our top

story this morning...

the White House

blasting the release

of over 90,000

U.S. military records.

It came from an organization

that didn't exist

five years ago, WikiLeaks.

The New York Times,

Britain's Guardian,

and Germany's Der Spiegel...

coordinated in publishing...

what some are comparing

to the Pentagon Papers,

back in the Nixon years.

They include

civilian casualties

and special forces

killing squads.

The most serious allegation

is that some soldiers

committed war crimes.

I know

much has been written...

as a result of the

substantial leak

of documents from Afghanistan.

What is this website,

"WikiLeaks"?

And who is Julian Assange?

Assange has made WikiLeaks

a global force.

And for better or worse...

exposed what he considers

some of the world's

darkest secrets.

The eyes of the world

are on the Frontline Club

in London.

Julian Assange is a man

without a home who lives

the life of the hunted...

changing his appearance,

using false names...

and encrypted cell phones

to avoid detection.

The U.S. government argues

there's nothing noble

about Assange.

A U.S. official describes him

as very Anti-American.

Come on!

It's Daniel.

Sh*t.

Uh, good morning.

I assume most of you

have read, uh,

this morning's papers. Um...

This is...

The Guardian. Um...

Fourteen... Fourteen pages

about this topic.

Also, concurrently,

Der Spiegel...

The New York Times...

These are revelations which

pierce the veil of secrecy

surrounding this war...

painting a more complete

portrait of events

we thought we understood...

but we may not

have known at all.

Mr. Berg.

Have you seen this?

They're pouring out of

every printer in the office.

I guess someone's pissed

you made New Year's Eve

a work day.

Well, as our resident

computer genius...

could you please find out

who that someone is?

Whoever it was disguised

his IP address.

According to this, the print

jobs are coming from...

your computer.

It's thousands of pages.

You'll have to manually reboot

it if you want it to stop.

Where are you going? I need

you to finish the Opel job.

I costed out GM, too.

In case you need something

to do on New Year's Eve.

Charlie in maintenance said

you left this by the scanner.

Happy New Year.

Daniel Berg. I volunteered

to sell shirts tomorrow.

We must be

on the schedule somewhere.

My associate Jay Lim sent in

our proposals months ago.

I'll be back in a minute.

We didn't get anything

from Wikileakers.

"WikiLeaks."

Wiki-whatever.

This is ridiculous.

Who's in charge here?

- Julian?

- Huh?

It's Daniel. Daniel Berg.

I contacted you over chat.

Daniel. Thank God.

I've got people waiting, here.

Can you help me

with this prick?

His organization is super cool.

They've been doing

crazy sh*t in Kenya.

The least you could do

is put us on your program.

The small conference rooms

are all booked.

What about the auditorium?

It's empty until the talk

about hacking video games.

Okay, you can have

that for half an hour.

- Thank you.

- But nobody's gonna show up

unless you print some flyers.

Well, that shouldn't

be a problem.

Daniel...

God forbid

we give out free toner

to human rights activists.

Sorry.

I totally spaced out

on that proposal.

Mind you,

I was a bit busy in Nairobi.

Oh, by the way,

that report we leaked...

shifted voting 10%

in the presidential election.

You might want to mention that

when you introduce me.

Sure.

Shredded my power cord

in Mombasa.

I assume the club won't mind

making a small donation.

I'll pay for the cord if

you actually get it to work.

Well, when you're taking on

global corruption...

you need a few super powers.

Et voila!

I'm a mathematician

by training.

When I was a grad student

in Melbourne...

I became interested in...

Okay,

send us the camera now!

- ...how...

- Excuse me, a little bit more!

I became

interested in information...

Okay, switching!

...and how it flows

through society.

- And how...

when new information

comes to light,

it can bring about

great change.

Excuse me.

Two people...

and a secret.

The beginning of any conspiracy

and of all corruption.

Otto...

- Otto, what is he doing?

- And as it grows...

...more lies, deceits.

More people...

and more secrets.

But...

if we can find one moral man...

one whistleblower...

Someone willing to expose

all these secrets.

That man could topple the most

repressive of regimes.

What the hell?

Otto, my talk is in 10 minutes!

And there's the problem.

He just ruined

my entire presentation!

Retribution.

Whistleblowers are

afraid to come forward

because they fear retribution.

But what if we could

remove that fear?

Twenty years ago,

I bought my first modem

and joined a legion.

Cypherpunks, fighting

for freedom, for privacy...

for the right to remain

concealed in clouds of code.

Today's hackers

take it for granted,

but they surf the Internet...

because of the programs

we created to hide data...

to... to hide our identities.

Even then,

I knew this technology...

could hold the key to a whole

new form of social justice.

Hundreds of volunteers work

on the documents we are sent.

But we've honed

our technology...

to a point that

even I don't know

the identity of our sources.

And if the whistleblower's

identity is secret...

then he has nothing to fear.

As Oscar Wilde said...

"Give a man a mask, and

he will tell you the truth."

Sorry, it's going to be

a few minutes.

We had some

technical difficulties.

Good talk, huh?

You think so?

People anonymously

sharing secrets...

I mean, isn't that why

we tore down the Wall?

Believe me, no one

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes