Lawsuit seeks transparency on Assange prosecution
AP Photo/Pascal Bastien
His prosecution is over, but the implications for journalists are alarming.
After pleading guilty to charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, Assange is the first person to be convicted under the Espionage Act for speaking with a source, receiving classified documents, and publishing them. In other words, things that journalists at news outlets do every day.
This is why Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) led a coalition of virtually every major civil liberties and human rights organization in the country to denounce the unprecedented case as a clear and present danger to press freedom.
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Appeals court says that Nixon’s attempt to prosecute Pentagon Papers reporter must stay secret — 50 years later
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Another record year for press-freedom violations in the US
While we did not see the scope of national social-justice protests of 2020—a year in which journalists were arrested or assaulted on average more than once a day—2021 still outpaced the years before it for press-freedom violations. We systematically capture this data in the US Press Freedom Tracker, where Freedom of the Press Foundation, in partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists and other press freedom groups, has documented aggressions against journalists in the United States since 2017.
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Assange to face extradition from United Kingdom: Freedom of the Press Foundation responds
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Press freedom coalition calls for end to Assange prosecution, after shocking reporting on CIA misconduct
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After shocking story about CIA illegal acts, Biden admin must drop Assange charges immediately
A shocking investigation by Yahoo News shows the CIA contemplated kidnapping and assassination against the Wikileaks publisher.
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Major news outlets must push Biden DOJ to drop Assange charges — their press freedom rights are at stake
As major news organizations meet with the Department of Justice today to discuss the recent journalist surveillance scandals, it’s vitally important that they press the Attorney General to drop the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. If the case continues, it would render the new press freedom progress worthless.
