Julian Assange
Full name: Julian Paul Assange
Born: 1971, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
Education: University of Melbourne
Currently: Editor in chief and spokesperson for Wikileaks, Hacker.
Previously: Journalist, programmer, internet activist.
Website: www.wikileaks.org
Awards: Economist Freedom of Expression Award (2008), Amnesty International UK Media Awards 2009, Sam Adams Award 2010.
Julian Paul Assange ( born 1971) is an Australian internet activist and journalist best known for his involvement with Wikileaks, a whistleblower website. Assange was a physics and mathematics student, a hacker and a computer programmer, before taking on his current role as spokesperson and editor in chief for Wikileaks.
After the hacking trial, Assange lived in Melbourne as a programmer and a developer of free software. In 1995, Assange wrote Strobe, the first free and open source port scanner. Assange has said that it is "pretty much true" that he is constantly on the move. He has lived in several countries, and has made occasional public appearances to speak about freedom of the press, censorship, and investigative journalis. Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 and become one of the frist there. In this capacity, he has come to widespread public attention for his role in the release of classified material documenting the involvement of the United States in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This involvement has garnered him largely negative criticism from government bodies, as well as encouragement from activist individuals and groups.
Assange was the winner of the 2009 Amnesty International Media Award (New Media), awarded for exposing extrajudicial assassinations in Kenya with the investigation The Cry of Blood - Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances.
