Leaking diplomatic dispatches used to be a recognized diplomatic art. In the not too distant past, American ambassadors in Central America or the Middle East who thought Washington was ignoring their cables would share them with correspondents, knowing that news reports would have a better chance of reaching the secretary of state’s desk than almost any memo the ambassadors wrote themselves.

Former Saudi ambassador to Washington Prince Turki Al-Faisal Sunday felt that America's credibility and honesty have been seriously compromised following the recent publication of hundreds of confidential diplomatic cables.

Hillary Clinton and Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian foreign minister, may have been seated at the same dinner table in the centre of the imposing ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in the Bahraini capital but they seemed to be worlds apart.

Government should be transparent by default, secret by necessity. Of course, it is not. Too much of government is secret. Why? Because those who hold secrets hold power. Now WikiLeaks has punctured that power. Whether or not it ever reveals another document -- and we can be certain that it will -- Wikileaks has made us all aware that no secret is safe. If something is known by one person, it can be known by the world.

Julian Assange’s website has attracted both flak and praise for leaking US diplomatic thinking. But some argue that Uncle Sam’s assessments are a fair reflection of what really goes on in Africa, writes Lee Mwiti.

There's more to the WikiLeaks dispatches than leaks. Look behind them, at the writers, and you see the loyal rearguard of America: an imperial power in retreat.

The National Portrait Gallery's succumbing to pressure to remove a video from an art exhibit is highly disappointing. Worse than disappointing are the politicians and self-appointed censors who are pressing the gallery to dismantle the entire exhibit and are using the controversy to threaten the museum's public funding.

As the latest WikiLeaks revelations have shown, when diplomatic cables are made public they are often far from diplomatic. In fact, they aren't even good journalism.