Struggling Wikileaks Stops Publishing Classified Files

The whistle-blowing website Wikileaks is suspending its publication of classified files.

Wikileaks said that it would focus instead on raising funds to ensure its future survival.

The announcement came after what the group called a blockade by US-based finance companies.

This followed its disclosure on the Internet of hundreds of thousands of secret US government files and diplomatic cables.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said that since last December an “arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade” had been imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union.

“The attack has destroyed 95 percent of our revenue,” he said.

The former computer hacker said the organization had lost “tens of millions of dollars in lost donations at a time of unprecedented operational costs”.

“A handful of US finance companies cannot be allowed to decide how the whole world votes with its pocket,” he added.

Assange said Wikileaks must “aggressively fundraise in order to fight back against this blockade and its proponents.”

He said the group was taking pre-litigation action against the blockade in Iceland, Denmark, the UK, Brussels, the United States and Australia and had lodged an anti-trust complaint at the European Commission.

A Wikileaks spokesman, Kristinn Hrafnsson said its website would reopen for submissions of confidential documents on 28 November.