WikiLeaks founder Assange to launch TV chat show

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he was launching his own television chat show and promised interviews with “key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries”, AFP reported.

No guests were unveiled, but a statement on the WikiLeaks website said the show would go on air in mid-March in 10 weekly half-hour episodes. It will feature “controversial voices from across the political spectrum – iconoclasts, visionaries and power insiders – each to offer a window on the world tomorrow and their ideas on how to secure a brighter future.”

The WikiLeaks website statement claims that it had licensing commitments covering more than 600 million viewers across cable, satellite and terrestrial networks. The statement gives no detail on which channels have bought the show and directed questions to a company called Quick Roll Productions, which was not immediately available for comment. WikiLeaks said in a message on its Twitter feed that the show would also be shown online.

WikiLeaks enraged the US administration by releasing tens of thousands of confidential documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then a ‘dump’ of files revealing the thoughts of US diplomats on world leaders.

Assange, a 40-year-old Australian former computer hacker, is fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden where prosecutors want to question him over allegations that he raped and sexually abused two Swedish women.