Julian Assange

Julian Assange is an Australian editor, programmer and publisher who founded the WikiLeaks publishing organization in 2006. He first drew international attention in 2010, when WikiLeaks released material supplied by the US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, including footage of a US airstrike in Baghdad, military logs from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a large body of diplomatic cables. Before that, as WikiLeaks editor, he oversaw publication of the Bank Julius Baer documents, footage of the 2008 unrest in Tibet and a report on political killings in Kenya prepared with The Sunday Times. He grew up in several parts of Australia, took part in the hacker community as a young man and was convicted of hacking in 1996. He lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London from 2012 until his arrest in 2019, was held in Belmarsh prison until June 2024, and returned to Australia after a plea agreement with US prosecutors. Critics of the charges against him argue that they challenge press freedom and investigative journalism worldwide. He has won more than two dozen awards for publishing and journalism.