*Winner of the European Award for Investigative And Judicial Journalism 2021*

*Winner of the Premio Alessandro Leogrande Award for Investigative Journalism 2022*

*Winner of the Premio Angelo Vassallo Award 2022*

'I want to live in a society where secret power is accountable to the law and to public opinion for its atrocities, where it is the war criminals who go to jail, not those who have the conscience and courage to expose them.'

It is 2008, and Stefania Maurizi, an investigative journalist with a growing interest in cryptography, starts looking into the little-known organization WikiLeaks. Through hushed meetings, encrypted files, and explosive documents, what she discovers sets her on a life-long journey that takes her deep into the realm of secret power.

Working closely with WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange and his organization for her newspaper, Maurizi has spent over a decade investigating state criminality protected by thick layers of secrecy, while also embarking on a solitary trench warfare to unearth the facts underpinning the cruel persecution of Assange and WikiLeaks.

With complex and disturbing insights, Maurizis tireless journalism exposes atrocities, the shameful treatment of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, on up to the present persecution of WikiLeaks: a terrifying web of impunity and cover-ups.

At the heart of the book is the brutality of secret power and the unbearable price paid by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, and truthtellers.

Foreword by Ken LoachIntroduction: The Man Who Stood Up to Secret Power1. The Wikileaks Revolution2. The Exceptional Courage of Chelsea Manning3. Afghanistan: The Faraway War4. The Cypherpunk5. A Database from Hell: the Iraq War Logs6. Rattling Power at the Highest Levels: Cablegate7. Guantanamo: The Black Hole of Civilisation8. "The Huffington Post gang is driving me nuts"9. From Sweden to Ecuador10. No Place for Protection11. My Trench Warfare to Unearth the Truth12. Arbitrarily Detained13. A Russian Connection?14. The Fury of the CIA15. Under Siege16. The Final Attempts17. In the Would-be Guantanamo18. 175 Years for the Crime of Journalism19. Only Kafka20. A Monstrous Injustice21. Secret PowerAcknowledgments