Assange – holed up the Ecuadorian embassy in London, evading deportation to Sweden over sexual assault allegations – said Alex Gibney’s We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks contains “errors of fact, selective editing and misrepresentations.”
Gibney, an Oscar-winning documentary maker, responded to the claims by likening Assange to the Wizard of Oz: “that moment where Toto pulls the curtain away and you see a man desperately manoeuvring the levers, trying to burnish his image”.
Gibney’s film also includes the claim that Assange demanded a US$1 million (B30 million) payment for an interview with the documentary makers – a figure that WikiLeaks disputes.