This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The Wall Street Journal has launched its own WikiLeaks-inspired whistleblowers' site, SafeHouse.

Similar to WikiLeaks, SafeHouse allows whistleblowers to confidentially upload documents to the site. A senior Wall Street Journal editor will manage the standalone site, which is based on secure servers.

Robert Thomson, tech editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of the Journal, said in a statement on Thursday: "The Wall Street Journal is the world's most trusted source of news, and SafeHouse will enable the collection of information and documents that could be used in the generation of trustworthy news stories."

SafeHouse opened for submissions on Thursday. Whistleblowers can choose whether to send their contact details or to remain anonymous. Users can also request to "become a confidential source" of the paper, though this requires contact details.

However, the site's terms and conditions – which users must agree to before uploading material – could prove controversial. They state that the Journal "reserve[s] the right to disclose any information about you to law enforcement authorities or to a requesting third party, without notice, in order to comply with any applicable laws and/or requests under legal process [...]".

By agreeing to the terms and conditions, whistleblowers agree "not to use SafeHouse for any unlawful purpose". The US has consistently argued that the release of a tranche of top secret diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks, and published by the Guardian and other newspapers, was illegal.

SafeHouse also admits that it "cannot ensure complete anonymity" of whistleblowers who opt to use the most secure form of uploading to the site. It does, however, recommend using online "cloaking" tools – such as Tor – which are used to disguise the identities of web users.

It adds: "If we enter into a confidential relationship, Dow Jones will take all available measures to protect your identity while remaining in compliance with all applicable laws."

Late last year, the Journal declined an approach by WikiLeaks to publish some of the US diplomatic cables.

A Journal spokeswoman told Yahoo's The Cutline blog that it turned down the invitation because it "didn't want to agree to the set of pre-conditions related to the disclosure of the WikiLeaks documents without even being given a broad understanding of what these documents contained".

SafeHouse becomes the latest whistleblowers' site to be launched by a mainstream publisher, following the huge international impact of WikiLeaks, which was co-founded by Julian Assange in 2005.

The pan-Arab news network al-Jazeera launched its confidential online repository in January, dubbed the Transparency Unit. The New York Times is considering a similar venture, and Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli recently refused to rule out an online SafeHouse of its own.

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