Julian Paul Assange (born 3 July 1971) is an Australian activist, political talk show host, computer programmer and journalist. He is best known as the editor-in-chief and founder of WikiLeaks. The site acts as a conduit for worldwide news leaks, with a stated purpose of creating open governance. Since 19 June 2012 he has been residing in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been granted political asylum.

On the 19th of August 2012 Julian Assange demanded that the United States drop its alleged "witch hunt" against WikiLeaks as he made his first public appearance after months of being effectively confined to the Embassy of Ecuador in London. "As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of all our societies," the founder of website said to cheers from his supporters outside the embassy.

Assange is under suspicion of rape charges in Sweden and has been evading several governments for years. He claims that these charges are a smokescreen for these governments to bring down the WikiLeaks website, which periodically posts sensitive and damaging information about government operations.