Another year passes and Australian citizen, journalist and publisher, Julian Assange is still detained in the UK as the US continues its pursuit of extradition for publishing material over a decade ago which revealed war crimes committed by the US and its allies in Afghanistan and Iraq. The US’ blatant attack on freedom of speech and freedom of the press which the Assange case represents allows for other nations such as China and Russia which are routinely criticised by Washington and other democratic nations like Australia for their jailing of journalists, to label it a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

The US and its allies attacks on China, Russia and other authoritarian regimes for their jailing of journalists are blunted given the refusal of the Biden Administration to end its pursuit of Assange who faces over 170 years in prison if convicted by an Eastern Virginia court of offences under the 1917 espionage legislation. In short, by continuing to pursue Assange the US and its allies have provided ammunition for other nations to make accusations of hypocrisy.

Washington and its allies like Australia have rounded on China over the detention in recent years of journalists such as Cheng Lei who was detained for 3 years before being released and returned to Australia in........

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