WikiLeaks: Five newspapers call for an end to persecution of Julian Assange

‘Publishing is not a crime’: five media outlets (The New York Times, The Guardian, El Pais, Le Monde and Spiegel) called on the US government on Monday to drop charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for a massive leak documents.

A 51-year-old Australian in failing health is being prosecuted in the US for publishing more than 700,000 confidential documents since 2010 on US military and diplomatic activities, notably in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the origin of a series of revelations published by, among others, these five American, British, Spanish, French and German newspapers. He faces 175 years in prison.

Arrested by British police in 2019 after spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, he is currently being held in a maximum security prison near London pending his appeal against the British extradition order.

“The collection and dissemination of confidential information, when necessary in the public interest, is an integral part of the daily work of journalists,” write the editors and managing directors of the five newspapers.

“If this work is criminalized, not only the quality of public debate, but our democracies will be significantly weakened. They believe that “in twelve years” to the day “after the first publications” “it is time for the United States government to drop the charges against Julian Assange.”

The Tribune recalls that the editors of five newspapers “felt it necessary to publicly criticize his position in 2011, when unredacted versions of diplomatic cables were made public, and some of us remain concerned about an accusation in a US lawsuit that he helped in a computer invasion of a secret database.

“But today we come together to express our deep concern about the endless legal proceedings that Julian Assange is going through,” the forum insists.

Its authors note that the recourse to the text, dated 1917, to combat spies, launched under the US presidency of Donald Trump, “has never been used against journalists, the media or broadcasters.” “Such an indictment sets a dangerous precedent.” and “threatens freedom of information”. Last month, US Attorney General Merrick Garland issued new, more protective rules for journalists, but did not hint at any final consequences for Julian Assange.

They allow the prosecution of journalists suspected of acting as agents of foreign powers and advocate case-by-case treatment of cases involving individuals who are not necessarily journalists in the traditional sense of the term.