Julian Assange Quotes

I try very hard to maintain the confidence of my sources by speaking candidly with them, honoring agreements about the use of our conversation, and practicing journalism in an honest and straightforward way.

The ethics of journalism are one thing. Another thing is the ethics of business.

No writer for the press, however humble, is free from the burden of keeping his purpose high and his integrity white.

My comments are reserved for reputable journalists.

There are honest journalists like there are honest politicians - they stay bought.

MSNBC policy requires journalists to report any potential conflict of interest and to seek approval from the president of NBC News before making any political contribution.

Reporters love this country too and they care about national security.

Although governments will also benefit from improved access to information, increased transparency will allow people at home and abroad to better observe and critique what governments do and to hold leaders accountable for their decisions. As a result, governments will find it harder to adopt strategies that require secrecy or violate international norms.

Even if you had the wherewithal to embarrass a reporter, there was no mechanism to do it. And in most cases, you might as well save your breath because the reporter had no shame anyway.

Just like there is nothing wrong with calling out unethical attorneys, there is nothing wrong with calling out unethical journalists.

It's really just my Hammurabi code of journalism ethics, that I don't want to ask someone to do something that I won't do myself.

We have standards. Anybody with the kind of journalism experience and professionalism that you have displayed over these years can not work for my program.

Given the multiple crises we are living through, investigative journalism is all the more important.

Reporters are always supposed to be demanding more access and more transparency. So the day that there isn't some friction between the White House press corps and the White House is the day that somebody in the press corps is not doing their job.

I believe democracy requires a 'sacred contract' between journalists and those who put their trust in us to tell them what we can about how the world really works.

We need an independent media to hold people like me to account.

WikiLeaks serves as a back-up for those who want to tell the truth about the inner workings of government when the mainstream media is not willing or taking too long to publish.

The quality of democracy and the quality of journalism are deeply entwined.

Journalists who make mistakes get sued for libel; historians who make mistakes get to publish a revised edition.

We have 25 or so years invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try to find something wrong with it.

Very rarely are you going to see the large shareholder or CEO of a corporation march into a newsroom and say, "Cover this story, don't cover that." It's a much more subtle process. The professional code adapts, but what we try to see, is how commercial and corporate pressure shape both the professional code and the sorts of things that are considered legitimate journalism and illegitimate journalism.

That being said, even if we cannot achieve it, journalism that strives toward objectivity and fairness has an important place in our society. So, too, does being honest and open when presenting our own opinions, as you do so well in your book

As a journalist, your job is to bear witness.

Americans should demand real news, more transparency and more truth.

There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.