five means (The New York Times, The Guardian, El País, Le Monde and Der Spiegel) on Monday called on the US government to drop charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over a massive document leak.
The 51-year-old Australian is being prosecuted in the United States for having published since 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on US military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan, at the origin of a series of revelations published in particular by these five newspapers. He faces 175 years in prison.
Arrested by British police in 2019 after seven years in confinement at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, he is currently being held in a high-security prison near London awaiting consideration of his appeal against the British government’s decision to extradite him
“Collecting and disseminating sensitive information when necessary for the public interest is an essential part of the daily work of journalists,” write the editors and CEOs of the five newspapers.
“If this work is criminalized, not only the quality of public debate, but also our democracies will be significantly weakened.”
They believe that “twelve years after the first publications”, “it is time for the US government to drop the charges against Julian Assange”.
Freedom of information under threat
The forum recalls that the editors of the five newspapers “found it necessary to publicly criticize his attitude in 2011 when unedited versions of the diplomatic cables were made public, and some of us remain concerned by the accusation in the US lawsuit that he helped in the computer intrusion into a classified database”.
Its authors point out that the appeal, launched under the US presidency of Donald Trump, to a law text dating from 1917 to fight against spies “had never been used against journalists, media or broadcasters”.
“Such an accusation creates a dangerous precedent” and “threats the freedom to inform.”
Last month, US Attorney General Merrick Garland issued new, more protective guidelines for journalists, but did not hint at any definitive consequences for Julian Assange.
They authorize the prosecution of journalists suspected of acting as agents of foreign powers and advocate a case-by-case approach to cases involving people who are not necessarily journalists in the traditional sense of the term.
Source: BFM TV
