International governments must not “shoot the messenger” by attacking disclosures by WikiLeaks, its founder Julian Assange said today.

Assange – writing ahead of his arrest in the UK earlier today – said Wikileaks ‘copped the most vicious attacks and accusations from the US government and its acolytes’because it was a young and small organisation.

His website had not cost a single life despite the claims of critics, he said in an article in The Australian newspaper, and as such deserved protection.