Wikileaks founder to write newspaper column

This will probably not help Julian Assange’s credibility much:  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he will write bimonthly columns for a left-leaning Swedish newspaper. Assange says his columns in tabloid Aftonbladet will give perspective on the work of WikiLeaks, which has angered the Pentagon by releasing thousands of classified Afghan war documents. Aftonbladet’s editor says ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
BERTIL ERICSON/AFP/Getty Images
BERTIL ERICSON/AFP/Getty Images
BERTIL ERICSON/AFP/Getty Images

This will probably not help Julian Assange's credibility much: 

This will probably not help Julian Assange’s credibility much: 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he will write bimonthly columns for a left-leaning Swedish newspaper.

Assange says his columns in tabloid Aftonbladet will give perspective on the work of WikiLeaks, which has angered the Pentagon by releasing thousands of classified Afghan war documents.

Aftonbladet’s editor says the column will help WikiLeaks get a publishing certificate in Sweden, which could allow the controversial site to take advantage of whistleblower protection laws. On the other hand, Assange was fairly savvy about the roll-out of the Afghanistan leaks, cooperating with Der Spiegel, the New York Times and the Guardian. It doesn’t seem wise to associate the WikiLeaks brand with a paper best known internationally for a widely-discredited article about Israeli soldiers harvesting organs from Palestinians.

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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