WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has blasted the mainstream media,Washington,banks and the internet itself as he addressed journalists in Hong Kong via videolink from house arrest in England.
Fresh from accepting a Walkley award for journalism on Sunday,Assange spoke to the News World Summit in Hong Kong on Monday before keeping a regular appointment with the police.
He defended his right to call himself a journalist and said WikiLeaks'next"battle"would be to ensure that the internet does not turn into a vast surveillance tool for governments and corporations.
"Of course I'm a goddamn journalist,"he responded with affected frustration when a moderator of the conference asked if he was a member of the profession.
He said his written record spoke for itself and argued that the only reason people kept asking him if he was a journalist was because the United States government wanted to silence him.
"The United States government does not want legal protection for us,"he said,referring to a US Justice Department investigation into his whistleblower website for releasing secret diplomatic and military documents.
The former hacker criticised journalists and the mainstream media for becoming too cosy with the powerful and secretive organisations they were supposed to be holding to account.
In a 40-minute address,he also accused credit card companies such as Visa and MasterCard of illegally cutting WikiLeaks off from funding under a secret deal with the White House.
"Issues that should be decided in open court are being decided in back rooms in Washington,"he said.
The internet itself had become"the most significant surveillance machine that we have ever seen",Assange said in reference to the amount of information people give about themselves online.