Wikileaks suspends publications

The whistle-blowing group WikiLeaks today announced it was suspending its publishing operations and will “aggressively” launch a new fundraising drive.

The website, behind the publication of hundreds of thousands of controversial secret US files and diplomatic cables, announced it was running on cash reserves after “an arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade” by the Bank of America, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Western Union.

A statement issued by WikiLeaks said: “The blockade is outside of any accountable, public process.

“It is without democratic oversight or transparency.

“The US government itself found that there were no lawful grounds to add WikiLeaks to a US financial blockade.

“But the blockade of WikiLeaks by politicised US finance companies continues regardless.”