WikiLeaks Launches Campaign to Offer $100,000 "Bounty" for Leaked Drafts of Secret TPP Chapters

JULIAN ASSANGE: That's the smoking gun. That's -- if you see the Edward Snowden case, without that, without those documents, you don't get anywhere. If you've got that, then they're undeniable, if they're official documents. So, we cannot allow a standard to be erected, in national security journalism or other forms of investigative journalism, where that is not permitted, where that is seen to be unlawful. And a number of journalists, as a result of the DOJ pushing this line that it is unlawful to solicit tips from sources, have been -- to protect themselves, they have said that they're not. But as a result, a new standard is being erected -- is in danger of being erected, where you cannot solicit tips from sources.

Now, we even fell into this mistake back in 2011, 2012, where our situation was quite precarious. Based on legal advice, WikiLeaks doesn't solicit information. In fact, WikiLeaks is one of the few organizations, because of our infrastructure, that we do often get unsolicited information. But we think it's necessary to hold the line and say, "No, asking for tips is a very important thing to do. It's always been done in journalism." And we're going to show that we do that. We are confident about doing that. We are confident that that is legal, under most judicial systems, and it should be legal also in the United States -- we say it is legal under the First Amendment. And if the U.S. DOJ wants to have a fight about that in relation to the TPP or anything else, then bring it on.

AMY GOODMAN: Julian Assange, speaking inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has taken refuge for the past three years. I interviewed him on Memorial Day. You can go to democracynow.org to see the two hours of our exclusive interview [hour one,hour two].

Also go to democracynow.org for the graduation speech you weren't supposed to hear. The response has been tremendous when we played it yesterday on Democracy Now! And now we've posted part two of our interview with Evan Young, the Colorado charter high school valedictorian who was barred from speaking at graduation because he was planning to come out as gay. That's democracynow.org. When we come back, Cuba. Stay with us.