Since Julian Assange’s trial began his organisation has fallen apart. This report uncovers the shocking truth behind Wikileaks’ dramatic and chaotic descent into crisis. Is this the end for the whistleblower?
“It was abusive to work in that environment”, Assange’s former close friend and Wikileaks collaborator Birgitta Jonsdottir tells us. She paints a picture of an intense, fraught workplace overseen by an increasingly megalomaniac leader. “He became very paranoid”, Daniel Domscheit-Berg says. He was Assange’s partner but also fell foul of the assertion that he couldn’t be trusted. Wikileaks has also fallen out with The Guardian and the New York Times, who collaborated on his biggest releases. As a result an extraordinary security breach occurred. Two journalists who worked with Assange published the confidential password for the master copy of the diplomatic cables. It led many to accuse Wikileaks of not having the ability to handle the information it has correctly. Holed up in his Norfolk bolthole awaiting the result of his appeal against extradition to Sweden, Assange sees it only as a lesson about trust: “Where there may be genuine criticism levelled at me is that actually we trusted The Guardian”. As Assange’s trial rumbles on and he becomes increasingly isolated, the question is, where now for Wikileaks?
A Film By ABC Australia, distributed by Journeyman Pictures.
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Cartoon by Bob Moran
