Mon 28 November 2022:
Top global media organizations have urged the US to drop its prosecution of Julian Assange, claiming that the US indictment of the Wikileaks founder threatens free expression and press freedom.
Five major news organizations issued an open letter on Monday condemning the US prosecution of Assange, who is wanted on 18 counts, including espionage.
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“This indictment sets a dangerous precedent and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and the freedom of the press,” wrote the editors and publishers of The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El Pais.
“Holding governments accountable is part of the core mission of a free press in a democracy.”
The letter came exactly 12 years after media outlets published revelations gleaned from Wikileaks’ release of over 250,000 confidential US military records and diplomatic cables, dubbed “Cablegate.”
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Chelsea Manning, a former US soldier, leaked the material to Wikileaks, revealing the inner workings of Washington’s diplomacy around the world.
The documents exposed “corruption, diplomatic scandals and spy affairs on an international scale”, Monday’s letter said.
“Twelve years after the publication of ‘Cablegate’, it is time for the US government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets. Publishing is not a crime,” the media outlets said.
Monday’s letter noted that, when Barack Obama was president and Joe Biden his vice president, the US administration held off on indicting Assange, as journalists involved could have also had to face prosecution.
That changed under President Donald Trump, when the US justice department charged Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act, which the media outlets said “has never been used to prosecute a publisher or broadcaster”.
The letter is the latest manifestation of public pressure on President Biden’s administration to drop Assange’s prosecution.
Leading human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union, urged Washington to drop the charges last year.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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