WikiLeaks stops publishing to make ends meet

WikiLeaks announced Monday it is suspending its publication of classified files as it struggles to bring its finances under control.

WikiLeaks co-founded Julian Assange told a news conference in London that the whistle-blowing group must turn all of its attention to fighting a so-called financial blockade and raising new funds, the Guardian reports. Assange said a banking blockage on the website had destroyed 95 percent of its revenues.

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"The blockade is outside of any accountable, public process. It is without democratic oversight or transparency," according to a WikiLeaks statement.

"The U.S. government itself found that there were no lawful grounds to add WikiLeaks to a U.S. financial blockade. But the blockade of WikiLeaks by politicized U.S. finance companies continues regardless."

Bank of America, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Western Union put a financial blockage on WikiLeaks after it published hundreds of thousands of controversial diplomatic cables and U.S. government files.

Assange has said that the financial blockage has cost the website tens of millions of dollars in lost donations, BBC reports.

"A handful of U.S. finance companies cannot be allowed to decide how the whole world votes with its pocket," he said.