WikiLeaks will have to stop publishing secret cables and devote itself to fund-raising if it is unable to end a financial "blockade" by US firms such as Visa and MasterCard by the end of the year, founder Julian Assange said on Monday. After releasing tens of thousands of confidential US government cables, WikiLeaks would need $3.5 million over the next year to continue operating, Assange said.
Visa and MasterCard stopped processing donations for WikiLeaks in December 2010 after the United States criticised the organisation's release of sensitive diplomatic cables. "If WikiLeaks does not find a way to remove this blockade, given our current levels of expenditure we will simply not be able to continue by the turn of the year," Assange told a news conference.