Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he has been freed after years of incarceration because "I pled guilty to journalism".
Assange gave evidence of the impact of his detention and conviction on human rights to the legal affairs and human rights committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday.
The Parliamentary Assembly includes parliamentarians from 46 European countries.
"The fundamental issue is simple: Journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) Journalism is not a crime; it is a pillar of a free and informed society" - Julian Assange, Council of Europe pic.twitter.com/bfWsY5FmpbOctober 1, 2024
"I want to be totally clear: I am not free today because the system worked," Assange said in his first public remarks since he was released in June.
"I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism.
"I pled guilty to seeking information from a source.
"I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source, and I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was.
"I did not plead guilty to anything else.
"I hope my testimony today can serve to highlight the weakness, the weaknesses of the existing safeguards, and to help those whose cases are less visible, but who are equally vulnerable."
Assange, 53, who travelled from Australia to Strasbourg for the address, sat between his wife Stella and WikiLeaks' editor Kristinn Hrafnsson, reading out his initial remarks from sheets of paper.
"I am yet not fully equipped to speak about what I have endured," he said.
"Isolation has taken its toll which I am trying to unwind."
Julian Assange sat between his wife Stella and WikiLeaks' editor Kristinn Hrafnsson. (AP PHOTO)
Assange was released after five years in a British prison after he pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing US military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concluded a drawn-out legal saga.
Before his time in prison, he had spent seven years in self-imposed exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he claimed asylum on the grounds of political persecution.
The Australian internet publisher was accused of receiving and publishing hundreds of thousands of war logs and diplomatic cables that included details of US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His activities were celebrated by press freedom advocates, who heralded his role in bringing to light military conduct that might otherwise have been concealed.
Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
But critics say his conduct put American national security and innocent lives - such as people who provided information to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan - at risk and strayed far beyond the bounds of traditional journalism duties.
The years-long case ended with Assange entering his plea in a US district court on the Northern Mariana Islands, an American commonwealth in the Pacific.
"I am not free today because the system worked," Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says. (AP PHOTO)
Assange pleaded guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defence information.
A judge sentenced him to the five years he had already spent behind bars in the UK fighting extradition to the US.
Assange returned to Australia a free man in late June.
At the time, Stella Assange said her husband needed time to recuperate before speaking publicly.
His appearance on Tuesday comes after the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly published a report on Assange's detention in a high-security UK prison for five years.
The assembly's human rights committee said Assange qualified as a political prisoner and issued a draft resolution expressing deep concern at his harsh treatment.
Assange told the committee freedom of expression was at a "dark crossroads".
"The criminalisation of news-gathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere," he said.
"I was formally convicted by a foreign power for asking for, and receiving and publishing, truthful information about that power while I was in Europe.
"The fundamental issue is simple - journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.
"Journalism is not a crime."
with Reuters, PA