New Website Aims to be Appalachia's Own WikiLeaks
Associated Press
13 January 2012
By Vicki Smith
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - A handful of freelance journalists and
computer programmers are launching Appalachia's version of
WikiLeaks, a website where whistle blowers can anonymously share
documents.
Co-founder Jim Tobias says *Honest Appalachia <https://www.honestappalachia.org/>
* debuts Tuesday. He says government and corporate whistleblowers
can post documents on it without revealing their own identities.
A team of reporters and programmers will verify the legitimacy of
the documents before they're publicly accessible. Tobias says
Honest Appalachia will also try to collaborate with journalists to
turn some documents into news stories.
Honest Appalachia will focus its initial outreach efforts on seven
states: West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky,
Tennessee and North Carolina.
The Sunlight Foundation, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit committed
to transparency and accountability in government, provided a
$5,000 grant to get the project started.