Julian Paul Assange is an Australian editor, publisher and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to wide international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning: footage of a US airstrike in Baghdad, US military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and US diplomatic cables. Assange has won multiple awards for publishing and journalism.
Assange in 2014
Assange, about 2006
Assange at the "New Media Days 09" in Copenhagen, November 2009
Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg at the 26C3 in Berlin, December 2009
WikiLeaks is a media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is a non-profit and is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, an Australian editor, publisher, and activist, who is currently challenging extradition to the United States over his work with WikiLeaks. Since September 2018, Kristinn Hrafnsson has served as its editor-in-chief. Its website states that it has released more than ten million documents and associated analyses. WikiLeaks' most recent publication of original documents was in 2019 and its most recent publication was in 2021. From November 2022, numerous documents on the organisation's website became inaccessible. In 2023, Assange said that WikiLeaks is no longer able to publish due to his imprisonment and the effect that US government surveillance and WikiLeaks' funding restrictions were having on potential whistleblowers.
Julian Assange is a founding member of the WikiLeaks staff.
WikiLeaks supporters protest in front of the British Embassy in Madrid, 11 December 2010.
Placard in front of Embassy of Ecuador, London, 22 August 2012
WikiLeaks supporters protest in front of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.