Whistleblowing website afriLeaks readies for launch

Cape Town - A website for whistleblowers leaking sensitive information in Africa is launching later this month.

The site, dubbed afriLeaks, is expected to launch at the end of November and provide an alternative for sources to confidentially or anonymously submit information to investigative media houses across South Africa, Africa and the globe.

Khadija Sharife, of afriLeaks, told Fin24 that the website differs from WikiLeaks in that only selected media houses will see and possibly use the afriLeaks leaks, which can be submitted anonymously or confidentially. WikiLeaks has traditionally published leaks on its own website while also selectively working with big global media organisations.

Sharife also told Fin24 that the afriLeaks website is further designed to ensure the sender, location and other data cannot be traced to protect their identity.

“The site will launch at the end of November with 15 member media houses including Premium Times, M&G (Mail and Guardian), Guardian (Botswana), Mmegi (Botswana), Daily Monitor (Uganda), among others,” Sharife told Fin24.

“The media houses, while currently part of the project, are in the process of receiving standard investigative capacity training before the platform is rolled out," Sharife said.

Sharife told Fin24 that the training covers information and digital security concepts such as encryption and removing metadata from documents.

Sharife added that beyond the technicalities, the media companies are expected to participate in content-related investigative journalism programmes that include forensics, cross-examination and analysing data.

“This is crucial - we need to ensure they understand the difference between being useful and being used; that the leak is not the story but a lead; that documents and sources are not without motives - some of which may render them the illicit actor, and must therefore be investigated,” Sharife told Fin24.

The afriLeaks website is hosted in Netherlands and uses open source software from GlobaLeaks developed by Hermes Center, Sharife said.

Websites such as WikiLeaks have shot to fame for releasing information such as the 'Iraq War Files' in 2010.

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