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Assange Show Starts Tuesday

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will launch his new TV talk show on Russia Today on April 17, but he is keeping the guest list secret, the station said.

Assange, who is under house arrest in England fighting extradition to Sweden for questioning on an alleged sexual assault, filmed "The World Tomorrow" show from Britain.

Russia Today said in a news release that it would not release the guest list in advance but added that the first interview would prove controversial.

"We do not want to kill the buzz and the intrigue by revealing the name of the first guest," said RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan. "But I have no doubt that this particular guest and this interview will lead to calls to shut us down from some especially hawkish personalities who have little respect for freedom of speech."

Assange said he would talk to people "who normally simply would not be given a voice on TV at all. What is fair to say is that the majority of what they have said to me they could not say on a mainstream TV network."

Assange's new show will be broadcast simultaneously from Moscow and Washington in English, Arabic and Spanish.

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