A new study finds that those surveyed were split between believing the release of the WikiLeak documents on Afghanistan hurts the public interest and saying it helps.

The News Interest Index of the Pew Research Center for The People and The Press found that 47% believed the release of the documents hurts the public interest, with 42% saying it serves the public interest:

The disclosure of more than 75,000 classified documents about the war in Afghanistan by the website WikiLeaks garnered significant media coverage last week, and those familiar with the story were split over the effect of the leak: about equal percentages say the release harms the public interest as say it serves the public interest.

The latest News Interest Index survey, conducted July 29-August 1 among 1,003 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, finds that while news about the Gulf oil leak continues to top public interest, attention to news from Afghanistan spiked following the WikiLeaks report, with 34% following Afghanistan reports very closely, up from 22% the previous week. This is the highest interest in Afghanistan news since December 2009, in the weeks following Barack Obama's decision to increase troop deployments there.

Most Americans have heard either a lot (37%) or a little (36%) about the WikiLeaks story specifically, though 27% say they heard nothing at all about it. Among those who have heard about the leak, 47% say the disclosure of classified documents about the war in Afghanistan harms the public interest while 42% say it serves the public interest.