"I Pled Guilty to Journalism": WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Speaks Publicly for First Time Since Prison Release

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke publicly today for the first time since he was released in June from a London prison. Assange addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in France about his 14-year legal saga after publishing evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange was freed after pleading guilty to a U.S. charge of obtaining and disclosing national security material. Democracy Now! broadcasts the first time the world has heard Julian Assange's voice since he was arrested in 2019. I eventually chose freedom over unrealizable justice after being detained for years and facing a 175-year sentence with no effective remedy," says Assange. I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today, after years of incarceration, because I pled guilty to journalism."