Julian Assange
Zach Weissmueller | 6.27.2024 2:10 PM
At last, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a free man. Why was he ever locked up in the first place?
Before the Justice Department dropped its request for Assange to be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, he had to plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act. That cleared the way for Assange to walk out of the maximum-security prison in London where he was being held. But it also sets a legal precedent that threatens free speech and journalism worldwide. Assange isn't a spy. He's a publisher, guilty of embarrassing the U.S. government.
"Really anybody who is concerned about press freedom should be deeply concerned about the prosecution of Julian Assange," says Trevor Timm, co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. "Maybe [some] journalists don't like Julian Assange, or they have criticized one or many of his actions over the years. That's all well and good, but what really matters are the acts the Justice Department is trying to criminalize here."
WikiLeaks first grabbed public attention with the 2010 release of a video titled "Collateral Murder." It showed footage from a 2007 attack by soldiers in a U.S. Army Apache helicopter,........