editor and publisher of New York Times and several major European media organizations published an open letter Condemn U.S. prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
assange faces 19 federal espionage and hacking charges Because he is suspected of helping Chelsea Manning obtain classified military reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.The allegations were made in 2019, but DOJ’s Superseding Indictment Filed June 2020 Added more details and allegations (but not new ones) alleging that Assange recruited hackers and led them to their targets. The Justice Department’s position is that Assange is a hacker, not a reporter.
Assange is currently being held in a British prison awaiting extradition to the United States to face prosecution.he has been fighting extradition but keep losing.
New York Times And several other media outlets have released some of the information revealed by WikiLeaks, and today’s letter offers a somewhat qualified defense that Assange is a journalist and that publishing leaked classified information is not a crime: “This indictment opens the door to A dangerous precedent and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and freedom of the press.”
This Second-rate joined the letter protector in England, Le Monde In France, Der Spiegel in Germany, and national newspaper in Spain. The five outlets released many details in 2010 of hundreds of thousands of classified State Department cables about hidden corruption and diplomatic scandals.
The letter included a passage critical of Assange’s judgment when he released an unredacted copy of the cables in 2011.it says “some [the outlets] Concerned about allegations in the indictment that he attempted to assist computers in hacking classified databases. “This allegedly refers to Assange’s Help Manning try to break the encryption Classified military files, according to the Justice Department indictment.
In other words, editors and publishers are willing to admit that Assange may not just be a passive recipient of classified information but deliberately seek it out. But many major media outlets (especially the five media outlets that signed the document) have recognized the public value and public concern of the information Assange obtained and released illegally.
leader in New York Times and This Washington post has long opposed the prosecution of Assange Potential chilling effect.If Assange can go to jail for publishing classified documents, then Second-rate or postal or any other media channel Who also released these files faced the same fate?
To address these First Amendment concerns, the grounds for suing Assange are that he does not qualify as a reporter. He is not a “legitimate” reporterThe problem with that argument is that it gives the government the power to define who qualifies as a journalist and who doesn’t, which itself seems to violate First Amendment protections. There is no distinction of “legality” in the First Amendment. Journalism is an activity, not just a profession. Many engage in various forms of journalism without being qualified as journalists for media organizations.
These media outlets have grasped this fact, even as the US government tries to insist that Assange is different from other media outlets. They are well aware that Assange’s prosecution, if successful, will eventually be used to prosecute other journalists for publishing classified information.Some lawmakers have recognized this as a problem, and Legislation has been introduced Attempts to clarify that the Espionage Act does not apply to journalists and whistleblowers.
