Assange Slams US in First Comments Since Plea Deal

For the record, Julian Assange pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing classified US military information. But in his first public comments since agreeing to the deal in June, the 53-year-old founder of WikiLeaks struck a more defiant tone:

• "I am not free today because the system worked," Assange told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in France, per CNN. "I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism."
• "I pled guilty to seeking information from a source," he added, per the AP. "I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was."

• Forbes sees this as his crucial line: "It is hard not to draw a line from the US government's prosecution of me, it's crossing the Rubicon by internationally criminalizing journalism to the chilled climate for freedom of expression that exists now," he said.
• Along those lines, he called for better protections for journalists worldwide. "I hope my testimony today can serve to highlight the weakness, the weaknesses of the existing safeguards, and to help those whose cases are less visible, but who are equally vulnerable," he said, adding that "the criminalization of newsgathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere."
• Assange, who traveled to France with his wife, Stella, from his native Australia, also addressed the five years he spent in a maximum security prison in Britain, much of it in isolation. "It strips away one's sense of self, leaving only the raw essence of existence," he said, his voice faltering. "I'm not yet fully equipped to speak about what I have endured—the relentless struggle to stay alive, both physically and mentally."

(More Julian Assange stories.)