Assange is determined to use his show to give a voice to people who would otherwise never be heard.

Today’s the day, folks! We’ve heard a lot of muttering from Julian Assange and his bronies for several months about a talk show hosted by the house-arrested founder of Wikileaks, and today the first episode of The World Tomorrow is set to drop on digital news channel Russia Today, and simultaneously around the world at 13h30 (South African time, 12h30 GMT).

The World Tomorrow is apparently being filmed in a secret London location where Assange has been holed up for over 500 days under house arrest, but without charge. The show’s debut season is set to feature 12 half-hour episodes.

Assange says the 12 episodes will focus on “figures 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”.

Of the show’s first guest Margarita Simonyan, Russia Today editor-in-chief says the news channel has “no doubts 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”.

Here’s a link to Episode 1 on Russia Today’s site.

UPDATE: South Africans with DStv can catch Russia Today on Channel 405, but apparently it is not listed on the electronic programme guide by Multichoice, so keep your eyes peeled around lunch time today.

Update: You can watch Russia Today on stream via their website or also here.

Assange’s first guest was Sayyid Nasrallah, the leader of controversial Islamic political group, Hezbollah who hasn’t given a TV interview in six years before appearing on Assange’s show today. The two discussed Hezbollah’s support for the Syrian Assad regime over the resistance forces that are under attack from the government.

Nasrallah told Assange that Hezbollah had urged the Syrian Resistance Forces to engage in dialogue with the Syrian Assad regime, but were ignored. Nasrallah claimed that “Hezbollah called for balance on the Syrian issue as “armed groups in Syria have killed very many civilians” though international blame is leveled squarely at President Assad.”

[Source: Channel 24, Russia Today]