Assange's Global Contributions

'It's about giving people the information they need. That is the raw ingredients needed to make a just and civil society.'

-Julian Assange

'Anything to Say?' a Monument to Courage - Davide Dormino, 2015.

Protecting whistleblowers - and our right to know

Wikileaks is a website for whistleblowers to safely leak information important to public interest that would otherwise be kept hidden. Assange saw that many democratic countries did not provide a safe way for whistleblowers to reveal evidence of crimes by governments and powerful organisations. Wikileaks has provided us with evidence of corruption in the financial sector, environmental scandals and war crimes.

Bringing an end to the Iraq war

'If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth. '

Julian Assange started Wikileaks after recognising that lies were being used to 'fool the public' into supporting the Iraq war.

Wikileaks went on to reveal evidence that 16,000 civilian deaths were hidden by US authorities - including the gunning down of two unarmed Reuters journalists. Wikileaks revelations helped turn public opinion and bring and end to the Iraq War.

Wikileaks key revelations

  • The US was hiding civilian casualties in the tens of thousands in the Iraq war, including the gunning down of Reuters journalists.

  • Global intelligence networks have been illegally spying on us through our smart-phones - including New Zealanders.

  • That prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were being tortured and detained arbitrarily.

  • The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement the New Zealand National government was signing without informing the public.

  • That the US Democratic Nomination Committee sabotaged Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign

  • That the US wanted to collect "biographic and biometric" information - including iris scans, DNA samples and fingerprints - of key officials at the UN.

Awards

Assange's work with Wikileaks has been awarded for it's impact all over the world, including:

  • Time Person of the Year, people's choice, 2010.

  • Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal, 2011.

  • The Voltaire Award for Free Speech, 2011.

  • Walkley Award, Most outstanding contribution to journalism, 2011.

  • Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts, 2013.

  • Multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

  • The Compassion in Care’s Gavin McacFadyen Award for Whistleblowers, 2019.

  • Stuttgart Peace Prize 2020.

Julian Assange being awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal - for publishing the same material that he is now being tortured and imprisoned for publishing.