Assange says he was freed as he 'pleaded guilty to journalism'

STRASBOURG - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Oct 1 said he was released after years of incarceration only because he pleaded guilty to doing "journalism", warning that freedom of expression was now at a "dark crossroads".

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"I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pleaded guilty to journalism," Mr Assange told the Council of Europe rights body at its Strasbourg headquarters in his first public comments since his release.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) had issued a report expressing alarm at Mr Assange's treatment, saying it had a "chilling effect on human rights".

Mr Assange spent most of the last 14 years either holed up inside the Ecuador Embassy in London to avoid arrest or locked up at Belmarsh Prison in London.

He was released from jail in June under a plea bargain, after serving a sentence for publishing hundreds of thousands of confidential US government documents.

The trove of confidential documents released by WikiLeaks included searingly frank US State Department descriptions of foreign leaders, accounts of extrajudicial killings and intelligence gathering against allies.

Mr Assange returned to Australia in June and had since not publicly commented on his legal woes or his years behind bars.