More WikiLeaks data on the way, Julian Assange tells Web forum
Fugitive Julian Assange joins streaming Web forum from Ecuadorean embassy in London
Fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaking over Skype from the Ecuadorean embassy in London, said his living situation was a bit like prison - with a more lenient visitor policy.
He also hinted that new leaks would come from WikiLeaks, though he gave no specifics on what these might be.
Assange, who has been confined to the embassy since June 2012, discussed surveillance, journalism and the situation in Ukraine on Saturday in a streaming-video interview beamed to an audience of 3,500 attendees of the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas.
Assange's hour-long remote appearance was spiked with technical glitches. As the audio cut out, he sometimes asked audience members to raise their hands if they could hear him. Benjamin Palmer, the co-founder of marketing firm the Barbarian Group who interviewed Assange, at one point resorted to texting his questions.
Assange blasted US President Barack Obama's administration, saying it was not taking seriously fellow secrets leaker Edward Snowden's revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance activities.
"We know what happens when the government is serious," he said. "Someone is fired, someone is forced to resign, someone is prosecuted, an investigation [is launched], a budget is cut. None of that has happened in the last eight months since the Edward Snowden revelations."
