On 3 February 2013 at a private dinner at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, attended by more than 150 guests, Julian Assange will receive the Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts 2013 for his WikiLeaks work including, amongst other releases, Collateral Murder. This award is given to people who have displayed extraordinary courage and who through their artistry have changed the world.

Accepting the award on behalf of Julian Assange will be both the Honorable Judge Baltasar Garzón Real and Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Centre for Constitutional Rights.

The award ceremony is also being attended by the Honorable Ricardo Patiño Aroca, Minister for Foreign Affairs for Ecuador; and Daniel Ellsberg, source of the Pentagon Papers. Both will be saying a few words.

Julian's speech in absentia

First of all, I want to thank Yoko Ono Lennon for her courage and spirit in granting me this award. A fine woman whose many actions define her. The test for all of us.

People often ask me how I keep going.

They ask as if my work was some kind of burden to me.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is no greater pleasure than fighting for your principles.

There is no greater pleasure than in fighting for those who have risked all to share your vision.

And there is no greater pleasure than seeing those who you admire, in turn, move to fight for you.

And while the embassy that shelters me is still surrounded by armed police, my voice is free.

Within the constraints of the UK surveillance operation outside, I am free to see my staff and my friends.

Many have fought and continue to fight to permit this basic liberty and I am grateful to them.

I want to thank the Ecuadorean people.

I want to thank President Rafael Correa and Foreign Minister Patiño for their courageous and unyielding support.

Their stance strengthens not just my rights but the rights of political refugees everywhere. Support them.

I dedicate this award to our courageous sources, supporters and to my staff.

Through their courage and wit they are revealing the true nature of our global human civilisation. This is how we may reform it. Elevate it - and make it just, beyond its humble origins.

Their courage in documenting war crimes, gross human rights violations, and the corruption of our societies is unequaled.

I want to thank all our anonymous volunteers and all those volunteers from Anonymous. You are unseen in your work but your work is far from unseen.

But I want to specifically name some.

Volunteer Aaron Swartz, aged 26. Political activist, hounded to death right here in New York last month as part of the broader political crackdown against our ideals.

Alleged source, now political prisoner, Bradley Manning. Bradley is now two weeks away from 1000 days in prison. The longest pre-trail detention in US military history.

Alleged source, now political prisoner, Jeremy Hammond, detained without trial, right here in New York, for the last 336 days as of today.

Volunteer and alleged source, now political prisoner, Gottfrid Svartholm, detained in Sweden for almost five months.

WikiLeaks banking blockade protesters Christopher Weatherhead, aged 22, and Ashley Rhodes, aged 28. Sentenced in the UK last week to 18 months and 7 months in prison respectively.

And I want to thank my lawyers Baltasar Garzón and Michael Ratner who are representing me here today, as they do every day.

They together with our other lawyers in the US, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Ecuador are part of the fight to make sure that our rights are respected and WikiLeaks can continue its mission.

With such courage, tenacity, love, and support from our friends, silencing WikiLeaks remains and will continue to remain a fantasy.

We will continue our fight to document the world, understand its institutions, and hold our civilisation to a higher standard.

Thank you so much,

Julian Assange

Ecuadorean Embassy

London

3rd February 2013