Wikileaks Tenth Anniversary - Assange to Make Global Online Address

© Sputnik / Mikhail Voskresenskiy / Go to the mediabankA video link up with Julian Assange, journalist, founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, at the session, End of the Monopoly: The Open Information Age, held as part of the New Era of Journalism: Farewell to Mainstream international media forum at the Rossiya Segodnya International Multimedia Press Center
A video link up with Julian Assange, journalist, founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, at the session, End of the Monopoly: The Open Information Age, held as part of the New Era of Journalism: Farewell to Mainstream international media forum at the Rossiya Segodnya International Multimedia Press Center - Sputnik International
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On the eve of Wikileaks’ tenth anniversary, Radio Sputnik discussed with Swedish commentator Al Burke the significance of the world’s most renowned whistleblowing website.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has promised to address the public in an online video statement on the website’s birthday on Tuesday, after canceling a balcony speech at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, due to security concerns.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange makes a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy, in central London, Britain in this February 5, 2016. - Sputnik International
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In the rescheduled speech, Assange will uncover a new portion of leaked data it is anticipated could attempt to derail the US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

According to Burke, those in power routinely use secrecy to stay in power. “As long as vital information is secret you have no basis for criticism,” he said.

If not for WikiLeaks, Burke stated, secret data on Clinton’s misconduct during her tenure as US Secretary of State, or war crimes in Iraq committed by the US, as well as the details about such secret deals as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, would have gone unreported, allowing those in power engaged in criminal activities to avoid responsibility for their actions.

“TTP and TTIP would have been railroaded through if it hadn't been for WikiLeaks,” Burke said, adding that the leaks “are important in today’s world, they would have been important in yesterday’s world, if they were there.”

By facilitating whistleblowers, Burke said, Assange has made enemies of many powerful people.

“It’s anyone in the so-called Anglo-American establishment and Saudi Arabians, and many others,” Burke said.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange makes a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy, in central London, Britain in this February 5, 2016. - Sputnik International
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Assange’s enemies have done their best to silence him, Burke said, including fabricating a potentially high-profile legal trial. In Sweden, he faces two counts of sexual molestation and one of rape, Burke detailed.

“We have an extremely broad definition of rape in Sweden. It extends to acts that in normal language would not be called rape. It includes behavior that has nothing to do with threats or violence,” he said, citing the Swedish bar association of lawyers.

That level of sophistication in the campaign against Assange is just one marker indicating the significance of the service that whistleblowers do for the world, Burke asserted.

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