"I Pled Guilty to Journalism": WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Speaks Publicly for First Time Since Prison Release

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke publicly today for the first time since he was released in June from a London prison. Assange addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in France about his 14-year legal saga after publishing evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange was freed after pleading guilty to a U.S. charge of obtaining and disclosing national security material. Democracy Now! broadcasts the first time the world has heard Julian Assange’s voice since he was arrested in 2019. “I eventually chose freedom over unrealizable justice after being detained for years and facing a 175-year sentence with no effective remedy,” says Assange. “I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today, after years of incarceration, because I pled guilty to journalism.”