WHISTLEBLOWING website WikiLeaks has hailed an “important victory” in its campaign against a block on processing donations to the organisation by credit card companies.
A court ruling in Iceland in favour of WikiLeaks was the biggest victory to date against the “unlawful and arbitrary” economic blockade, it said.
Iceland’s Supreme Court upheld a decision that online payments firm Valitor had unlawfully terminated its contract with WikiLeaks donations processor DataCell.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaking from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, from where he is fighting moves to extradite him to Sweden, said: “This is a victory for free speech. This is a victory against the rise of economic censorship to crack down against journalists and publishers.
“We thank the Icelandic people for showing that they will not be bullied by powerful Washington-backed financial services companies like Visa, and we send out a warning to the other companies involved in this blockade: you’re next.
“We hope that the European Commission also acknowledges that the economic blockade against WikiLeaks is an unlawful and arbitrary censorship mechanism that threatens freedom of the press across Europe.
“If it fails to do so, the Commission must be regarded as failing to live up to the founding European principles of economic and political freedom.”
Assange said last year the block had cost WikiLeaks millions of pounds after wiping out a huge chunk of its revenues.
A number of credit card companies stopped processing donations at the end of 2010.
WikiLeaks said in a statement: “Despite the effects of the blockade having crippled WikiLeaks resources, the organisation is fighting the blockade on many fronts.
“It is a battle that concerns free speech and the future of the free press, it concerns fundamental civil rights and it is a struggle for the rights of individuals to vote with their wallet and donate to the cause they believe in.”
Assange, who is wanted for questioning in Sweden on sexual assault charges, which he denies, has claimed that hard-right politicians in the United States were directly behind the banking blockade as a political reaction to WikiLeaks publications.
