In an announcement at the Frontline Club, Julian Assange, stated that Wikileaks will temporarily be suspending all their publishing activities as a result of the ongoing financial blockade.
The blockade, which is the effect of Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal blocking donations to the unrestricted transparency organisation under political pressure from Washington, has meant that Wikileaks has lost over $15 million in revenues – about 85% of their donations. Wikileaks has not been found illegal in any country as yet, but the distaste and annoyance with the organisation by Washington has meant that they have been running on cash reserves for the past year.
This finacial blockade is worrying for a few reasons, whether you support Wikileaks and Assange or not: it shows the centralisation of the world’s financial system and its susceptibility to political interference; and the belief within the US government that they can strangle to financial death any organisations that they disapprove of without the need for a court case and without the rule of law. Free speech can and should be restricted for certain very specific reasons, but those restrictions should not just be the whim of a powerful country’s rulers, and should be free and fair for all.