by Kerul Dyer for Clear Actions
Newsweek proclaimed Julian Assange as having a Spartacus Moment this week. The outlet’s allusion, conjuring a vision of loyal followers ready to fight and die for a cause, emerged after famed Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg called for the Justice Department to charge him alongside Assange. He publicly admitted to taking equivalent actions as Assange by possessing the same leaked documents and not discharging them to a government authority.
Ellsberg’s bold statements come on the heels of transparency activist John Young’s demand to be charged as well, since he published the identical documents to Wikileaks on his website Cryptome.org.
As rumors of an upcoming US extradition of Assange swirl, the Biden Administration is keeping a closed lid on whether or not it will pursue the use of the Espionage Act to prosecute. If extradited to the US, Assange faces 17 charges under the Espionage Act as well as two charges under separate laws, which all hold hefty prison sentences.
This use of the Espionage Act, according to Ellsberg, can be likened to the British Official Secrets Act, that does not provide protections for a right to freedom of speech like the US Constitution does.
“If they succeed with Julian Assange, in extraditing him [and successfully convict him] we will not have a First Amendment,” said Ellsberg in an interview with Amy Goodman from Democracy Now. “It’s as if we didn’t fight a War of Independence, actually, with respect to anything they regarded as related to national defense. Free speech is pretty much out the door.”
The rhetorical demands for prosecution by Ellsberg and Young are only the most recent public call for Biden to drop the charges against Assange. In late November, major news outlets, including the New York Times, Der Spiegel and the Guardian among others co-published a letter to President Biden. The open letter titled, “Publishing is not a Crime: The U.S. government should end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets” received attention around the world. The letter demands that the Biden administration drop Espionage Act charges against Assange out of concern for press freedom and democracy itself.
“This indictment sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and the freedom of the press,” the open letter states. “Holding governments accountable is part of the core mission of a free press in a democracy…If that work is criminalised, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.”
At Peace House, we hold a core value that a democratic society relies on an informed public. Without truth-seeking journalists digging into issues and an ability to publish freely, how can there be adequate checks on government and a path toward peace?
