BREAKING: WikiLeaks Takes On Oxford Union

WikiLeaks has accused the Oxford Union of censoring Julian Assange’s videolink speech on 23rd January.

They claim that the Oxford Union pulled the live stream and edited the speech over issues with the background image chosen by Assange.

During his speech, Assange featured a video released by WikiLeaks in 2010 titled ‘Collateral Muder’ that shows, from the gunner’s perspective, an Apache helicopter firing on Reuters journalists and civilians.

In the video released by the Oxford Union the original background can no longer be seen; instead, it is replaced by an official Union background. The Union maintain this is because of fears of a copyright claim from the US government. WikiLeaks, however, states that it advised the Union that “by law and practice the US government does not claim copyrights on footage or documents that it produces.”

Assange made his speech as part of the Sam Adams Awards, an event dedicated to whistleblowers, organised by the Oxford Union.

Here are the two videos in question:

Protest to his speech had been widespread, a situation that’s all too familiar for Cantabs. As most readers will already know, Assange cancelled his speech in Cambridge because of “technical reasons”. He then went on to announce a speech in Hamburg on the same day, leading the Cambridge Union to point out his “apparent dishonesty.”

The news comes at a bad time for the Oxford Union, who were recently accused of staging a cover up over the invitation of BNP leader Nick Griffin.