Assange speech lends gravitas to anti-authority show

AUSTIN -- There's something different about this year's South by Southwest.

It's not just more celebrities, Chuck Taylors and the prerequisite appearance by Owly the @HootSuite owl. There is a certain gravitas at a show that is notoriously anti-authority.

Topics ranging from data breaches to Bitcoin to drones dominated panels and discussions, a reflection of tech's growing influence in Americans' lives and a nod to the industry's fast-paced news cycle.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange offered a hefty slice of newsworthiness this morning, with an affirmation for national security reporting -- especially by Americans in exile.

"National security reporters are a new kind of refugee," Assange told thousands, via Skype, from London's Ecuadorian embassy. "I see this as quite a positive phenomenon that where people would have been completely crushed and not able to work anymore, they are able to use these basic tenets of classic liberalism like freedom of movement... to keep working."

Assange called the reporting part of a broader political movement created, in part, by the Internet. He singled out the work of former Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, who helped blow the lid off the National Security Agency's spying program. Greenwald recently started the First Look Media venture, which is funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

Even a billionaire like Omidyar understand "those with $8 billion are not free anymore," Assange said.

Next up: NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden, who is scheduled, via satellite, on Monday.