WikiLeaks founder Assange to launch TV chat show

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday he was launching his own television chat show and promised interviews with "key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries". No guests were unveiled, but a statement on the WikiLeaks website said the show would go on air in mid-March in 10 weekly half-hour episodes. It will feature "controversial voices from across the political spectrum -- iconoclasts, visionaries and power insiders -- each to offer a window on the world tomorrow and their ideas on how to secure a brighter future." Describing Assange as "one of the world's most recognisable revolutionary figures," the whistleblowing website said it had licensing commitments covering more than 600 million viewers across cable, satellite and terrestrial networks. The statement gives no detail on which channels have bought the show and directed questions to a company called Quick Roll Productions, which was not immediately available for comment. WikiLeaks said in a message on its Twitter feed that the show would also be shown online. Assange said: "Through this series I will explore the possibilities for our future in conversations with those who are shaping it. Are we heading towards utopia or dystopia and how we can set our paths? "This is an exciting opportunity to discuss the vision of my guests in a new style of show that examines their philosophies and struggles in a deeper and clearer way than has been done before." WikiLeaks enraged the US administration by releasing tens of thousands of confidential documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then a 'dump' of files revealing the thoughts of US diplomats on world leaders. Assange, a 40-year-old Australian former computer hacker, is fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden where prosecutors want to question him over allegations that he raped and sexually abused two Swedish women. England's highest court will next week hear Assange's appeal against his extradition. If the Supreme Court rejects his case in the February 1-2 hearing, he will have exhausted all his options in Britain but he could still make a last-ditch appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Assange insists the allegations are politically motivated.