For months WikiLeaks and its secret-sharing has been a headache mostly for the US government.

It is inspiring a new breed of would-be whistle-blowers across the globe - stretching from Brussels to Indonesia.

But there is some dispute about whether all this copycat activity is helping to promote freedom of information - or doing the exact opposite.

And what about the risk of inflaming tensions in volatile countries? Whistle-blower sites have been spreading like a rash since WikiLeaks started revealing US secrets.

Are they rewriting the rules for how governments and their citizens deal with information around the world?

Joining the programme are Wahyu Dhyadmika, the chairman of the Jakarta Chapter of the Alliance of Independent Journalists, and a senior journalist at Tempo Magazine; Bassam Kuntar, a senior editor at Al-Akbar; and Abdullah Schleifer, a professor of journalism and senior fellow at the Center for Journalism, American University in Cairo.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Thursday, December 16, 2010.