What is the goal of WikiLeaks?

Answer 1

Wilkileaks says on its website that it publishes material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of their sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.

In less lofty terms, it seem that they have a moral mission to try to make sure that the bad guys who do sneaky things that they want to keep hidden don't have it all their own way. There is however nothing new in this - investigative journalism has a long history - the Watergate scandal and the Pentagon Papers scandal being two much-quoted examples.

Of course, those who wish to keep the suppressed and censored information out of the public view are usually not happy about having it published, and have been seen to raise their objections very loudly. However, in most western democracies there are laws, and even constitutional provisions, that allow freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

The most famous of these is the First Amendment fo the United States Constitution, which, when read with various court definitions of the press, prohibits the US government from interfering with every sort of publication which affords a vehicle of information and opinion. This includes everything from newspapers to blogs Other democratic countries have similar provisions, in varying degrees.

Those legal protections for freedom were challenged when being written, but to date the general consensus of courts and legislatures is that freedom of information is preferable for "the public good" than the suppression of information.

Answer 2

From the website:

WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.