Julian Assange

58. Julian Assange

Julian Assange is at the cutting edge of digital journalism – as states' and companies' attempts to silence Wikileaks show

Job: founder, WikiLeaks
Age: born 1971
Industry: digital media
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Julian Assange is the undercover force behind WikiLeaks, the self-styled "intelligence service of the people" that has published more than a million confidential documents from top secret military information to the hacked emails of Sarah Palin.

Launched at the beginning of 2007 and with a mission to change the world by abolishing official secrecy, the website has posted the text messages of people killed in the September 11 attacks, controversial correspondence between climate change researchers at East Anglia University and the so-called "Collateral Murder" video of American forces killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad.

At the cutting edge of digital journalism, it has "more scoops in three years than the Washington Post has had in 30", according to the internet guru Clay Shirky.

Unlike traditional media, WikiLeaks has so far escaped censure by basing itself in Sweden, which has strong laws to protect whistleblowers. When the Guardian was prevented from publishing documents about the activities of oil trader Trafigura, the material ended up on WikiLeaks soon afterwards.

Not that governments and big business haven't tried to shut the site down – Assange claims to have fought off more than 100 legal attacks since its launch. "To do that, and keep our sources safe, we have had to spread assets, encrypt everything, and move telecommunications and people around the world," he said.

A softly spoken Australian with a shock of white hair, little is known about Assange. He does not discuss his background – he was raised in Melbourne and convicted of computer hacking when he was a teenager - or where he lives. Favourite boltholes are said to include Kenya, Sweden and Iceland.

Assange was forced into hiding earlier this year following the arrest of a US intelligence analyst who claimed to have sent 260,000 incendiary US state department cables on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the site.

WikiLeaks claimed its founders comprised Chinese dissidents, hackers, computer programmers and journalists, but Assange is its driving force.

The website won the prestigious Amnesty Media award for exposing hundreds of alleged murders by the Kenyan police and is helping MPs in Iceland with their plans to become a bastion for global press freedom.

It has an annual budget of around $175,000, funded by small donations and free legal support from big media organisations, but a shortage of funds led it to temporarily suspending operations at the beginning of the year.

The site has also come under attack, not just by governments and big business, but from critics who claim it is indiscriminate and unaccountable. To which Assange replied: "When governments stop torturing and killing people, and when corporations stop abusing the legal system, then perhaps it will be time to ask if free speech activists are accountable."
source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/16/julian-assange-mediaguardian-100-2010