Wikileaks head leaker Julian Assange said Wednesday that he has withheld release of a stack of presumably damaging files about Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation as "insurance ... if something happens to me or to WikiLeaks." He also said that he has withheld more than 500 secret U.S. diplomatic cables concerning one unnamed broadcasting organization. Britain's Guardian newspaper, which has published many of the documents leaked by Assange, quoted him as saying that efforts by the U.S. government to indict him should concern the mainstream media. "I think what's emerging in the mainstream media is the awareness that if I can be indicted, other journalists can, too," he told the newspaper. "Even The New York Times is worried. This used not to be the case. If a whistleblower was prosecuted, publishers and reporters were protected by the first amendment, which journalists took for granted. That's being lost."

13/01/2011