Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, is to host a ten-part political discussion program on Russia Today television in March, the channel said on Wednesday.
Each half-hour installment of “The World Tomorrow” will feature guests being interviewed by Assange, who gained global notoriety after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified U.S. documents beginning in 2010.
“Guests of the show’s host and creator Julian Assange will include politicians and revolutionaries; people, who in his opinion, will form tomorrow’s agenda,” the channel said.
“We are proud and delighted that our channel will premiere Julian Assange’s project because the RT channel has gained a worldwide audience that's disappointed by the mainstream and has become open to new angles, making this show fitting for the purpose” RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan was quoted saying.
“Upheavals and revolutions in the Middle East have started an era of political change that is still unfolding," WikiLeaks stated on its website. "In the West, the deterioration of the rule of law has demonstrated the bankruptcy of once leading political institutions and ideologies. The internet has never been so strong, or so much under attack.”
The site expects “over 600 million viewers across cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcast networks” for the new show.
“The World Tomorrow” will be filmed in east England, where Assange has spent 413 days under house-arrest while he battles an extradition request from Sweden, where he faces charges he sexually abused two women.
Swedish police issued an international arrest warrant for Assange in November 2010. He was arrested in London in December and released on bail a few days later.
Assange is scheduled to appeal the extradition order in Supreme Court on February 1.
