What is WikiLeaks and why did it get Julian Assange in so much trouble?: Explained
The Hindu
Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, nears plea deal for freedom after 14-year legal battle, known for controversial leaks.
Julian Assange, founder of whistleblower media group WikiLeaks, is due to strike a plea bargain this week that would free him from jail and allow him to return home to Australia after a 14-year-long legal saga.
On its website, WikiLeaks says it is a multinational media organisation that specialises in analysing and publishing databases of censored or otherwise restricted materials involving wars, spying and corruption.
It was founded by Assange in 2006 and lists several international media organisations among its co-publishers, research partners and funders. It also says that it is a not-for-profit organisation that is funded through public donations.
"WikiLeaks is a giant library of the world's most persecuted documents," Assange said of the organisation in an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel in 2015. "We give asylum to these documents, we analyse them, we promote them and we obtain more."
The most controversial leaks by WikiLeaks featured classified U.S. military documents and videos from the war it waged in Iran and Afghanistan in the early to mid 2000s that it said highlighted issues such as abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody, human rights violations and civilian deaths.
U.S. authorities said the leaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents. Assange's many supporters said the site upheld free speech and attempts to prosecute him were an assault on journalism.
In April 2010, WikiLeaks released a video showing a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff. In June, a U.S. military specialist named Bradley Manning was arrested for releasing the classified video.
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