Assange hires public relations firm

SYDNEY - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is hiring a public relations firm after a series of damaging blows to his image, a media report said here Saturday.

Assange, who is on bail in Britain and facing extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations, has taken a battering in the media in recent weeks as his personal life is scrutinised, the Australian news agency AAP reported.

Assange’s team has decided to shield him from the media by looking to stitch up a deal with London public relations firm Borkowski, owned by master publicist Mark Borkowski.

The firm has a four-member team dealing with media enquiries relating to Assange. It is also setting up an online weekly media conference to deliver messages from Assange and WikiLeaks, the report said.

It only began representing Assange Friday morning and Borkowski said he was not comfortable talking about the arrangements until a deal was signed, “hopefully this weekend”.

Assange has enraged the US by obtaining a cache of some 250,000 US diplomatic cables and slowly releasing the documents through his whistleblowing website, often causing huge embarrassment in world capitals.

The 39-year-old Australian has also signed a book deal to tell his “fascinating” life story.

Edinburgh-based Canongate Books says it has acquired world rights - apart from North America - to his story.

It says he will discuss his philosophies in the book and quotes him as saying: “I hope this book will become one of the unifying documents of our generation. In this highly personal work, I explain our global struggle to force a new relationship between the people and their governments.”