When asked last year by a Swedish television journalist “why do journalists censor themselves?” Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange thought for a moment and replied:
“I think there is a fear about the response from those people who are offended… and the journalists think that, incredibly, that it would not be in their career interests to pursue that material.”
In that same interview Assange said “The aim of Wikileaks is to achieve just reform around the world and do it through the mechanism of transparency”.
A year later, Julian Assange’s Wikileaks organisation is threatening to sue the Guardian over “malicious libels”.
Now can we all accept that Julian Assange is a fame-hungry, media-manipulating hypocrite? Please?
The “malicious libels” in question can be found in “Wikileaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy“, published by Assange’s former allies at the Guardian, and extracted in today’s paper. The book comes hot on the heels of “Open Secrets: WikiLeaks, War and American Diplomacy” by Assange’s former allies at the Times. A book which I reviewed here, and Wikileaks reviewed here…
…because sunshine is the best form of SHUT UP JUST SHUT UP LALALALALA WE CAN’T HEAR YOU.
(H/t and image credit for first Twitter message: Gawker)