STRASBOURG, France — Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said on Tuesday he was released after years of incarceration only because he pleaded guilty to doing "journalism," warning that freedom of expression was now at a "dark crossroads."

"I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pleaded guilty to journalism," Assange told the Council of Europe rights body at its headquarters in the eastern French city of Strasbourg in his first public comments since his release.

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