Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




CYBER WARS
Internet has become 'surveillance machine': Assange
by Staff Writers
Hong Kong (AFP) Nov 28, 2011


WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange blasted the mainstream media, Washington, banks and the Internet itself as he addressed journalists in Hong Kong on Monday via videolink from house arrest in England.

Fresh from accepting a top award for journalism from the prestigious Walkley Foundation in his native Australia on Sunday, Assange spoke to the News World Summit in Hong Kong before keeping a regular appointment with the police.

He defended his right to call himself a journalist and said WikiLeaks' next "battle" would be to ensure that the Internet does not turn into a vast surveillance tool for governments and corporations.

"Of course I'm a goddamn journalist," he responded with affected frustration when a moderator of the conference asked if he was a member of the profession.

He said his written record spoke for itself and argued that the only reason people kept asking him if he was a journalist was because the United States' government wanted to silence him.

"The United States government does not want legal protection for us," he said, referring to a US Justice Department investigation into his whistle-blower website for releasing secret diplomatic and military documents.

The former hacker criticised journalists and the mainstream media for becoming too cosy with the powerful and secretive organisations they were supposed to be holding to account.

In a 40-minute address, he also accused credit card companies such as Visa and Mastercard of illegally cutting WikiLeaks off from funding under a secret deal with the White House.

"Issues that should be decided in open court are being decided in back rooms in Washington," he said.

The Internet itself had become "the most significant surveillance machine that we have ever seen," Assange said in reference to the amount of information people give about themselves online.

"It's not an age of transparency at all ... the amount of secret information is more than ever before," he said, adding that information flows in but is not flowing out of governments and other powerful organisations.

"I see that really is our big battle. The technology gives and the technology takes away," he added.

The anti-secrecy activist then help up a handwritten sign from an aide telling him to "stop" talking or he would be late for a mandatory appointment with police.

Assange, 40, is under house arrest in England pending the outcome of a Swedish extradition request over claims of rape and sexual assault made by two women. He says he is the victim of a smear campaign.

.


Related Links
Cyberwar - Internet Security News - Systems and Policy Issues






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








CYBER WARS
December court date for Manning in WikiLeaks case
Washington (AFP) Nov 21, 2011
Bradley Manning, the US soldier alleged to have passed to WikiLeaks a trove of military and diplomatic documents, will have a first hearing before a military court next month, the Pentagon said Monday. Manning, who has spent the past year-and-a-half in prison, is to appear before a December 16 tribunal in Fort Meade, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC, military officials said. Army of ... read more


CYBER WARS
Schafer Corp Signs Licensing Agreement with MoonDust Technologies

Russia wants to focus on Moon if Mars mission fails

Flying over the three-dimensional Moon

LRO Camera Team Releases High Resolution Global Topographic Map of Moon

CYBER WARS
NASA Launches Most Capable and Robust Rover to Mars

Did US climate weapon knock-out Russian probe

Russia's Medvedev evokes Stalin ahead of elections

The Martian Chronicles Continues With Russian Bit Part

CYBER WARS
Looking for a Space Job

Thanksgiving in space may one day come with all the trimmings

More U.S. science degrees by foreign-born

ULA Completes Milestone Toward Certifying Atlas V For Human Spaceflight

CYBER WARS
15 patents granted for Chinese space docking technology

China plans major effort in pursuing manned space technology

Tiangong-1 orbiter enters long-term operation management

China launches two satellites: state media

CYBER WARS
Satellite junk no threat to space station crew

Space Station Trio Lands Safely in Kazakhstan

Russian Soyuz brings astronauts safely back to Earth

New Trio Welcomed Aboard Station, Gets to Work

CYBER WARS
Assembly milestone reached with Ariane 5 to launch next ATV

Russia launches Chinese satellite

AsiaSat 7 Spacecraft Separation Successfully Completed

Pleiades 1 is readied for launch

CYBER WARS
Habitable Does not Mean 'Earth-Like'

Exo planet count tops 700

Giant planet ejected from the solar system

Three New Planets and a Mystery Object Discovered Outside Our Solar System

CYBER WARS
Kindle sales quadrupled on Black Friday: Amazon

Mapheus-3 - spherules, metals and microgravity

Recycle this: Bolivian turns waste into high fashion

Carbon nanotube forest camouflages 3d objects




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement