It's time for the DOJ to drop the Assange case and save the First Amendment. Department of Justice Building, Washington, D.C. by Ken Lund is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
A video from Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) is calling on members of the public to tell the Biden administration to drop the Espionage Act charges against Julian Assange because of the threat the charges pose to journalists and the news media.
In the new video raising alarm about the case’s risks to press freedom, FPF explains: “For decades, journalists have depended on the right to publish government secrets. But all that could change if the Biden administration finishes what Trump started: Prosecuting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act.”
The video points out that Assange is accused of acts that journalists engage in every day: speaking with sources, convincing them to provide documents, receiving those documents, and then publishing some of those documents. As a result, convicting Assange under the Espionage Act would hand a potential second-term President Donald Trump or any future administration the perfect weapon to go after The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other news outlets.
“You don’t have to like Julian Assange. This is not about him,” FPF notes in the video. “It’s about the future of the Fourth Estate and American democracy.”
FPF is encouraging Americans who care about press freedom to contact the White House and DOJ and to post on social media to express their concerns about the danger Assange’s prosecution poses to journalists and press freedom. For more information about the case and about how to make your voice heard, visit https://freedom.press/assange.