Several people who resigned from the WikiLeaks project amid conflicts with founder Julian Assange are planning to provide some competition on the whistle-blowing front with the launch of a new site called Openleaks on Monday, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported.

"Our long term goal is to build a strong, transparent platform to support whistle-blowers--both in terms of technology and politics--while at the same time encouraging others to start similar projects," an Openleaks organizer, who wished to remain anonymous, told the newspaper. "As a short-term goal, this is about completing the technical infrastructure and ensuring that the organization continues to be democratically governed by all its members, rather than limited to one group or individual."

Assange's former partners left WikiLeaks because of the "top-down management style" and because Assange's personal problems were distracting from the work, the report said.

Openleaks will not directly publish information it receives but will allow media outlets and other organizations to access the system and disclose what they want, according to internal Openleaks documents. The group will serve as a neutral intermediary with no political agenda.

"As a result of our intention not to publish any document directly and in our own name, we do not expect to experience the kind of political pressure which WikiLeaks is under at this time," a source told the newspaper. "In that aspect, it is quite interesting to see how little of politicians' anger seems directed at the newspapers using WikiLeaks sources."

The news comes shortly after Assange was arrested and refused bail in England after Sweden sought his extradition for sexual assault.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!