Assange interviews Hezbollah chief in Russian TV debut

MOSCOW - Agence France-Presse

Julian Assange, the 40-year-old WikiLeaks founder, currently under virtual house arrest in Britain. AP photo

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange interviewed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday in the debut of his "The World Tomorrow" talk show on Russia's state-funded RT cable broadcaster.
 
Assange remains under house arrest and was speaking from his study in London to Nasrallah -- considered a "terrorist" by both the United States and Israel -- at his Lebanese office via a computer video link.
 
The controversial founder of the whistle-blowing website admitted he was bound to face criticism for airing his show on an English-language channel that is funded by the Kremlin and openly promotes Moscow's view on global affairs.

Assange said in remarks released by RT that he expected to be called an "enemy combatant, traitor (for) getting into bed with the Kremlin and interviewing terrible radicals from around the world. "But I think it's a pretty trivial kind of attack on character," he said in comments released on the RT website.
 
"If they actually look at how the show is made: we make it, we have complete editorial control, we believe that all media organisations have an angle, all media organisations have an issue." The 12-episode weekly show is being produced by the Quick Roll Productions company that Assange set up after establishing fame with his site that leaked US diplomatic dispatches.
 
Assange has been under house arrest for almost 500 days awaiting judgment from the Supreme Court in London on whether he can be extradited to Sweden for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault zak/am/co