Julian Assange wanted $1m for interview with We Steal Secrets documentarian Alex Gibney

Transparency advocate Julian Assange wanted $1 million for an interview or said he would speak in return for information relayed to him from other interview subjects. Source: AP

JULIAN Assange apparently asked a documentary-maker for $1 million to do an interview or for information from other interview subjects.

Alex Gibney, whose film We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks has just been released in the US, told The Nation about the transparency advocate's bizarre requests.

"I tried over the course of a year and a half to get the interview. He’d already been interviewed by practically everyone on the planet. Finally we had a six hour meeting. He told me that the market rate for an interview was a million dollars. I told him I don’t pay for interviews," Gibney said.

"He said “That’s too bad, in that case you might do something else for me.” He wanted me to spy on our other interview subjects - which I found a rather odd request from someone concerned about source protection. So I never did get the interview with Julian Assange."

WikiLeaks has released an annotated version of a leaked transcript of the documentary on the anti-secrecy group.

WikiLeaks said it had not participated in the making of the documentary, which focuses on the website's controversial founder Assange and its chief informant Bradley Manning.

Private Manning, a US Army intelligence analyst who admitted to leaking hundreds of thousands of secret military logs and confidential embassy cables to WikiLeaks, faces possible life imprisonment in a military trial to resume June 3.

Assange, the Australian hacker who founded the site, has been holed up in Ecuador's London embassy for nearly a year, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning in a sexual assault case.

WikiLeaks said late on Thursday that the film "portrays Manning's alleged acts as a failure of character rather than a triumph of conscience" and said the film's portrayal of his relationship with Assange was "grossly irresponsible."

The portrayal "suggests - erroneously and when evidence is to the contrary - that Assange may be guilty of conspiring with Bradley Manning to commit espionage or similar offences."

The WikiLeaks statement added that "neither Julian Assange nor anyone associated with WikiLeaks over the past two-and-a-half years agreed to participate in the film."

It then posted what appeared to be a full transcript of the documentary with copious notes alleging factual errors and misrepresentations.

In a recent interview with CBS news, the American director Gibney said the film is concerned with "both the abuse of power and hubris on the part of the US government, but certainly also on the part of Julian Assange."

"At his moment of greatest fame, (Assange) ends up becoming all too much like the enemies he sought to take out or expose," Gibney said.

Gibney told CBS he engaged in "endless negotiations" with Assange but that his requests to interview the WikiLeaks founder were ultimately denied.

He was also unable to interview Manning, who has been in military detention since his arrest in 2010.

In a separate interview with NPR aired on Friday, Gibney said Assange and Pte Manning, didn't necessarily change how governments operate, but, "at a moment in time when governments are keeping far too many secrets," they helped reveal the people pulling the "levers" behind the scenes.

"We see that a lot of those 'levers' are doing pretty terrible things."

The United States has accused WikiLeaks of endangering national security by leaking the documents, which included reports of torture and civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The diplomatic cables include candid comments by world leaders and confidential assessments by US diplomats that in many cases proved embarrassing to the State Department and other governments.

Pte Manning admitted in February to leaking the war logs and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks and said he would plead guilty to 10 of the less serious charges against him, which could see him sentenced to 20 years in military custody.

The 25-year-old, who was working as a US Army intelligence analyst when he was arrested in Iraq in 2010, has denied the more serious charge of "aiding the enemy," which could carry a life sentence.

Pte Manning is set to go before a full court martial on June 3, with the trial expected to last 12 weeks.