The first episode of Julian Assange’s new talk show, airing on the Kremlin’s English-language satellite broadcaster, has begun with an interview of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The WikiLeaks founder says he knows he’ll be criticized for choosing Russia Today (RT), a broadcaster derided by some as Russian propaganda mouthpiece.
But in an interview broadcast ahead of the show he said he had full editorial control and insisted it was the best way to reach his audience.
The show kept the names on his guest list secret up until the last minute. Assange has promised that his guests have told him things they “could not say on a mainstream TV network,” the Associated Press reported.
With the show beginning at 1130 GMT, Assange chose Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese political movement Hizbullah, for his first interview.
Nasrallah said several states, both Arab and non-Arab are providing cash and arms to fuel the current fighting in Syria; that the Syrian opposition rejected a Hizbullah suggestion to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad; and that Assad’s regime has served the Palestinian cause well and not buckled under Israeli and American pressure.
Assange remains under strict bail conditions at an undisclosed location in England while he fights extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations.
