Entering A New Reality
Upon the ruling by U.K.’s High Court to allow the extradition to the U.S. of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, questions about a free press in the United States of America are being asked, and answered, once again.
Recent reporting reveals a scary answer: America will continue to pick, choose, and abuse, what is and what isn’t ‘press freedom’.
On 29 October 2021, Salon called the Assange case ‘the most important battle for press freedom of our time’
If Assange goes to prison for exposing war crimes, it will mean the death of real national security reporting
Then on 14 December 2021, Salon published:
The execution of Julian Assange: He exposed the crimes of empire — and that can’t be tolerated
The WikiLeaks founder’s unforgivable sin was to expose the U.S. empire’s war crimes. For that, he faces death
The next day, 15 December 2021, The Guardian reported:
Scott Morrison, Australia Prime Minister, should advocate for Julian Assange when talking to Caroline Kennedy, American ambassador to Australia
Assange [Australian citizen] has been enfeebled by two years in a harsh UK prison, to the point allegedly of suffering a stroke, forced to sustain strip searches and handcuffs as if the British were processing a Hannibal Lecter and not just a troublemaking advocate of the media freedom the first amendment appears to guarantee.
The Editorial Board at The Guardian on 10 December 2021 called for the U.S. to set Julian Assange free:
The attempt to extradite the WikiLeaks founder is an assault on the press freedom that the Biden administration promises to promote
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Posted here 24 May 2019
Statement of Fact
The Trump administration’s indictment of Julian Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917 is “a fundamental threat to press freedom in the 21st century”.
Freedom of the Press Foundation Executive Director Trevor Timm issued the following statement:
Put simply, these unprecedented charges against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are the most significant and terrifying threat to the First Amendment in the 21st century. The Trump administration is moving to explicitly criminalize national security journalism, and if this prosecution proceeds, dozens of reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere would also be in danger. The ability of the press to publish facts the government would prefer remain secret is both critical to an informed public and a fundamental right. This decision by the Justice Department is a massive and unprecedented escalation in Trump’s war on journalism, and it’s no exaggeration to say the First Amendment itself is at risk. Anyone who cares about press freedom should immediately and wholeheartedly condemn these charges. More at Freedom of the Press Foundation
Posted here 20 May 2019
Burning Question
Robert Scheer, Editor in Chief at Truthdig.com Asks:
Has Freedom of the Press Become an Illusion?
Scheer, who has argued in the past that the persecution of [Julian] Assange endangers journalism as we know it, points out the discrepancies between how whistleblowers Chelsea Manning and Assange have been treated, both by the U.S. government and the world media, and how, for example, Gen. David Petraeus went unpunished for leaking state secrets. More here