Status: 11/28/2022 5:04 p.m
Five international media houses, including Der Spiegel, have publicly appealed to the US government to stop prosecuting WikiLeaks founder Assange. The editors see the freedom of the press endangered.
The German news magazine “Spiegel” and four other international media companies have called on the US government to refrain from prosecuting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. “The indictment of Assange sets a dangerous precedent and an attack on press freedom,” it says in an open letterwhich was signed by the “Spiegel”, the US “New York Times”, the British “Guardian”, the French newspaper “Le Monde” and “El País” from Spain.
In 2010 – exactly twelve years ago to the day – the five editorial offices published several articles based on the WikiLeaks documents. As the organization “Reporters Without Borders” tweeted, it was the first time that editors-in-chief and publishers had publicly called on the US to stop prosecuting Assange for publishing classified documents.
Criminalization weakens democracy
Journalism is not a crime, the letter goes on to say. One of the core tasks of journalists in democratic countries is to criticize government mistakes. “Anyone who criminalizes this work weakens public discourse and thus democracy.” The charges against Assange set a dangerous precedent and threaten to undermine freedom of the press.
As of 2010, Assange had published around 700,000 confidential documents on US military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan on the WikiLeaks website, including information on the killing of civilians and the abuse of prisoners.
Assange, along with whistleblower Chelsea Manning, is accused of stealing classified material and endangering the lives of US informants by publishing it. Supporters see Assange as a courageous journalist who exposed war crimes and who should now be made an example of.
Released information on US operations
In 2012, Assange fled to the British Embassy from Ecuador in London, where he lived for five years. The Central American country revoked his asylum in 2019, after which British police arrested Assange. Since then he has been in solitary confinement in London’s Belmarsh maximum security prison.
In early July, the 51-year-old appealed against the British government’s decision to extradite him to the United States. There, the Australian faces a prison sentence of up to 175 years.