The founder of Wikileaks said he'd voluntarily meet with police in London on Swedish sexual assault charges. In the meantime he's raising bail money. Also, Columbia University disowned some anti-Wikileaks statements and AP will stop calling Wikileaks "whistle blowers."

In today's Wikileaks Roundup:

  • Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was reportedly "reconciling himself to a lengthy personal court battle" in Britain to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape and sexual molestation charges. He faces an arrest warrant related to the charges, and is in the process of arranging a meeting with police. After the meeting police are expected to order Assange to show up in court the next day. He will then have to post bail of between $160,000 and $315,000 and offer up to six people to provide surety (vouch for him showing up to court, basically).
  • Assange is convinced the Swedish prosecutor is a cipher for U.S. officials. Whether that's true or not, the U.S. is after him; U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said he "personally authorised a number of things last week" to bring about his prosecution on American charges.
  • Assange's sexual assault charges in Sweden stem from his alleged refusal to stop having sex after a condom broke; Dana Kennedy at AOL News compiled the various reports elaborating on that, including one today in the New York Times.
  • Last week, Columbia's Office of Career Services sent students in the School of International and Public Affairs an email from a State Department staffer who warned that commenting on or sharing Wikileaks documents on the internet could cost them federal jobs by "call[ing] into question your ability to deal with confidential information." The Dean of the school has now backed off that, writing, "SIPA's position is that students have a right to discuss and debate any information in the public arena that they deem relevant to their studies or to their roles as global citizens, and to do so without fear of adverse consequences."
  • The AP, Reuters and NBC News all decided to stop calling Wikileaks a "whistle blower" group within the past week. What a coincidence! Totally unrelated: The White House endorsed the move. AP now calls Wikileaks "a website that specializes in displaying leaked information." Rolls right off the tongue.
  • Online communities maven Clay Shirky is "conflicted" about Wikileaks, for about 15 paragraphs. He concludes, "If it's OK for a democracy to just decide to run someone off the internet for doing something they wouldn't prosecute a newspaper for doing, the idea of an internet that further democratizes the public sphere will have taken a mortal blow."