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Journalism of Courage
Here is a timeline of the main elements in the WikiLeaks saga. Britain’s High Court has ruled that founder Julian Assange should be extradited from Britain to Sweden.
* April 5,2010 – Internet group WikiLeaks releases a video showing a 2007 US helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Baghdad,including two Reuters news staff.
* April 13 – Eight days later U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticises WikiLeaks,saying it released the video without providing any context explaining the situation.
* June 7 – The U.S. military says that Army Specialist Bradley Manning,who was deployed to Baghdad,has been arrested in connection with the release of the classified video.
* July 25 – More than 91,000 documents,most of which are secret U.S. military reports about the war in Afghanistan,are released by WikiLeaks.org.
* Oct. 22 – WikiLeaks releases some 400,000 classified U.S. military files chronicling the Iraq war from 2004 to 2009,the largest leak of its kind in U.S. military history.
* Nov. 18 – A Swedish court orders Assange’s detention as a result of an investigation begun in September by the prosecutor’s office into allegations of rape,sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.
* Nov. 28 – WikiLeaks releases thousands of US diplomatic cables that include candid views of foreign leaders and blunt assessments of security threats.
* Nov. 30 – Assange’s lawyer,Bjorn Hurtig,lodges an appeal against an arrest order with Sweden’s High Court. Sweden’s court refuses Assange permission to appeal on Dec. 2.
* Dec. 7 – Assange is arrested by British police on a European warrant issued by Sweden and held in jail after a judge refuses to grant bail.
— Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny says sexual misconduct case against Assange is a personal matter and not connected with his work releasing secret US diplomatic cables.
* Dec. 8 – Australia blames the United States for the release by WikiLeaks of US diplomatic cables and says Assange should not be held responsible.
* Dec. 11 – A loose grouping of cyber activists supporting WikiLeaks abandons its strategy of online attacks on organisations seen as hostile to the site in favour of spreading the leaked documents far and wide online.
— Internet activists operating under the name Anonymous temporarily brought down websites of credit card giants MasterCard and Visa — both of which had stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks.
* Dec. 13 – Assange says in a documentary he faces prosecution by the United States and is disappointed with how Swedish justice had been abused.
* Dec. 14 – A British judge grants bail of 200,000 pounds ($317,400) for the release of Assange. Prosecutors,representing Swedish authorities,say they will appeal against the bail decision and Judge Howard Riddle says Assange must remain in custody until a new hearing is held within 48 hours.
* Dec. 16 – London’s High Court upholds the decision and grants bail to Assange.
* Feb. 24,2011 – A British judge approves the Swedish request to extradite Assange to face accusations of sex crimes. Assange’s lawyer says he will appeal.
* June 24 – Assange hires a new legal team,replacing Mark Stephens with prominent human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce.
* July 13 – Judges defer a decision on Assange’s extradition.
* Aug. 25 – WikiLeaks releases thousands of previously unpublished U.S. diplomatic cables from its cache of more than 250,000 State Department reports.
* Sept. 28 – Assange complains about release of an unauthorised version of his autobiography.
* Oct. 24 – Assange says that WikiLeaks will have to stop publishing secret cables and devote itself to fund-raising if it is unable to stop US firms such as Visa and MasterCard blocking payments by the end of 2011.
* Nov. 2 – Britain’s High Court says Assange should be extradited to Sweden.
