A former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan is to give a lecture in Cardiff in support of Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused passing thousands of classified military documents to whistleblower website Wikileaks.

Craig Murray, who is now a writer, broadcaster and human rights activist, will give a lecture called “Why do we need whistleblowers in a democracy?” at Cardiff University on Monday, 16 April (18:00 BST).

He spoke to Felicity Evans on BBC Radio Wales’ Sunday Supplement.

Pte Manning, who has a Welsh mother and American father, spent some of his teenage years in Pembrokeshire, and the lecture comes as National Theatre Wales is staging a play called The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning.

He faces charges of obtaining and distributing government secrets, and is accused of making intelligence available to “the enemy”.

Listen to the interview at BBC.