< Schedule
Thursday, March 19, 2026 · 17:00–19:10
The Reasons Behind
» Tickets
» HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1) · Berlin
» English with German simultaneous translation
» Streaming (English, free) at disruptionlab.org and HAU4
Speakers · Read more
Stella Assange (Human Rights Lawyer, ZA/UK/AU), Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Global Director of Courage International, IS), Renata Ávila Pinto (Lawyer, Openness Advocate, CEO Open Knoweldge Foundation, GT/UK), Chip Gibbons (Journalist, Researcher, US). Moderation: Tatiana Bazzichelli (Founder and Artistic Director, Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE).
Introduction
“Information wants to be free” is a motto that has shaped the development of hacker culture and journalism since 1984. The conference opens with the insights of four speakers that will dig deeper into the philosophy and actions behind WikiLeaks’s work. If Julian Assange had been extradited to the US, he would have faced a sentence of up to 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act for publishing US war crimes, including torture, murder and other human rights violations. In April 2019, Julian Assange was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police and imprisoned in the UK’s Belmarsh high security prison until 24 June 2024. Taken together with his seven-year-asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy and the house arrest in London, Assange spent 14 years in confinement without having been given the chance to a fair trial in defence of his work as an editor and public interest advocate. Assange’s work has been inspired since the 1990s by the principles of hacker ethics, cypherpunk and freedom of information. This body of values is crucial to understand the logic around the foundation of WikiLeaks, the publication of a massive number of leaks and the challenge of exposing unconditionally wrongdoing of people in power.
For many decades, the political impact and drive to provoke societal change have informed the work of WikiLeaks. This work has inspired many sources and whistleblowers who have fought to reveal crimes committed by state powers or institutions, in the name of accountability and justice, but that have suffered also persecution and criminalisation – to name a few, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Reality Winner, Daniel Hale, and others that will be speaking during the conference days,
The reasons and general impact of WikiLeaks’ work are discussed by speakers who have been close to the project or working actively within it: Stella Assange (human rights lawyer and Julian Assange’s wife), and Renata Ávila Pinto (lawyer, digital rights expert and openness advocate), that have been in different phases members of the legal team defending Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and advocating for his freedom. They will be in dialogue with Sunna Ævarsdóttir, an Icelandic politician, human rights lawyer and journalist, that investigated the detention and conviction of Assange, authoring a critical 2024 Council of Europe report that classified Julian Assange as a “political prisoner”. The panel involves also Chip Gibbons, journalist and researcher expert on the history of FBI political surveillance and the impact of the Espionage Act on press freedom. The conversation is moderated by Tatiana Bazzichelli, the founder and director of Disruption Network Lab in Berlin, and a curator and researcher on digital culture, hacktivism and whistleblowing.
Read more about EXPOSING CRIMES IS NOT A CRIME
Exposing crimes is not a crime · The Real-World Consequences of WikiLeaks
Programme
Thu March 19 2026
» The Reasons Behind
» War & Military
Fri March 20 2026
» Government & Diplomatic Cables
» Intelligence & Cybersurveillance
Sat March 21 2026
» Global Economy & Corporate Secrets
» Art as Evidence & Resistance
Sun March 22 2026
Activation Day
» Tactics & Actions
» WEKILL//LEAKS
A Symposium by Disruption Network Lab. Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds and the Reva & David Logan Foundation. In cooperation with the Wau Holland Foundation and HAU Hebbel am Ufer.