Julian Assange in £1million autobiography deal

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has signed a deal worth over £1million for his autobiography, according to the Sunday Times.

Assange told the paper he did not want to write the book but was forced into it by financial problems brought on partly by legal costs incurred as a result of allegations against him of sexual assault by two women in Sweden.

“I don’t want to write this book, but I have to,” he said. “I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat.”

Assange said he would receive $800,000 dollars from Alfred A. Knopf, his American publisher, and a British deal with Canongate is worth £325,000 pounds.

Money from other markets and serialisation is expected to raise the total to £1.1 million, he said.

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Alexander Lebedev: 'I have a dream - a foundation to finance investigative journalism into corruption'

Alexander Lebedev, the former KGB agent who now owns the Independent and London Evening Standard, tells the Sunday Times Magazine today: "My dream is to set up a foundation to finance journalistic investigations into international corruption."
He adds: "The free media can change the world. My idea is for some of the biggest titles around the world to pool resources to uncover the schemes and money flows used to sustain massive corruption. The results would be presented to the G8. That would force governments to act. We need transparency and accountability."

• The Sunday Times is now behind a paywall.