WikiLeaks: Media is Targeting Julian Assange with 140 ‘Fake Statements’
Whistleblowing agency warns journalists over fake news against founder
© press
Whistleblowing agency Wikileaks sent an email to the media defending founder, Julian Assange, who is still held in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London avoiding extradition to the US.
Wikileaks warned journalists on Sunday telling them to refrain from reporting 140 numerous "false and defamatory" statements about its founder and the agency, according to Reuters.
"There is a pervasive climate of inaccurate claims about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, including purposeful fabrications planted in large and otherwise ‘reputable' media outlets," WikiLeaks told the media, marked "Confidential legal communication. Not for publication".
© press
"Consequently journalists and publishers have a clear responsibility to carefully fact-check from primary sources and to consult the following list to ensure they are not spreading, and have not spread, defamatory falsehoods about WikiLeaks or Julian Assange".
The message emphasized that Assange had never been an "agent or officer of any intelligence service," before adding that the founder has never had ties to Moscow or employed by the Russian government.
.@PrivateEyeNews on the UK government funded semi-covert media influence network #IntegrityInitiative, which attacked UK opposition leader @JeremyCorbyn and spread fake news about Julian Assange & Catalonia, was developed by the man who brought you the Iraq war. pic.twitter.com/ziBtZ7BZWR
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 7, 2019
FULL DOC: Emails between Guardian & diplomat over another false "Russian plot" story by the same journalist behind the front page "Assange-Manafort" fabrication, Luke Harding. Guardian's top journalist Ian Cobain gone but serial fabricator Harding remains. https://t.co/0c8ycVOI2j
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 6, 2019
© press
Wikileaks went on to deny claims that Assange had bleached his hair, related his cat, had problems with personal hygiene, or was a professional hacker.
Assange faced rape and molestation charges in Sweden, which were later dropped because they were 'politically motivated.'
Last year, The Washington Post found that Assange had already been charged under seal by the Eastern District of Virginia, who had been overseeing the probe into the Wikileaks disclosures.
The announcement was not meant to reveal any indictment, though, mainly because it was the result of a copy-and-paste error in another court filing that was unrelated.
