Strasbourg: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday said he was released after years of incarceration only because he had pleaded guilty to doing “journalism”, which he described as a pillar of a free society.
“I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pleaded guilty to journalism,” Assange told the Council of Europe rights body in his first public comments since his release, adding: “Journalism is not a crime, it is a pillar of a free and informed society.”
