At the conclusion of the first day of a London court hearing into whether he should be extradited to Sweden to answer questions about alleged sex crimes, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had this to say, according to The Guardian:

“For the past five-and-a-half months we have been in a condition where a black box has been applied to my life. On the outside of that black box has been written the word ‘rape’. That box is now, thanks to an open court process, been opened.

“I hope over the next day we will see that that box is in fact empty and has nothing to do with the words that are on the outside of it. We have seen that today and I would like to thank my supporters and my lawyers for continuing to help me. A process like this surely lets you understand who your friends are.”

There’s much more in the Guardian‘s live-blog about today’s session in court.

Meanwhile, The New York Times writes today about OpenLeaks — “an alternative website for leaks” being created by about a dozen of Assange’s former colleagues at WikiLeaks.

Among the things that will be different about OpenLeaks, which is set to launch this summer: Herbert Snorrason, an Icelandic programmer who is part of the project, told the Times that it will not deal in documents itself. “Instead, it will act as a neutral conduit to connect leakers with media and human rights organizations.” Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.