Is Freedom of the Press as Risk with Extradition of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The British High Court ruled last week that Julian Assange may be extradited to the U.S., where he will face 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act and one count of hacking into a government computer.
Assange, 50, is being tried for publishing classified military and diplomatic documents back in 2010. These criminal charges could see Assange sentenced to 175 years in prison, despite the fact that he's not a U.S. citizen and WikiLeaks is not a US-based publication. A British judge ruled in January that the U.S. would be prohibited from finalizing Assange's sentence as it could cause him to suffer mental health damage. Assange, who is currently being held on remand in Belmarsh prison, had a stroke last week and his overall health is reportedly depleting.
The Assange trial has been prominently covered across the spectrum. Left-rated outlets were split on the issue, with one writer for Salon saying "the judicial railroading of Assange" has turned "lying into a universal principle." A writer for Mother Jones said Assange's "prosecution poses a serious threat to democracy", adding that a guilty verdict "will effectively criminalize the investigative work of all journalists and publishers." Additionally, some left-rated outlets linked Assange's extradition to former President Donald Trump and how much he "knew about Russian election interference." One writer for Reason Magazine criticized the current state of press freedom, emphasizing that everyone should have the right "to practice journalism in ways that offend people in power, or it will get turned into glorified public relations work for those who hold power."
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From the Right
Julian Assange Extradition Decision the Latest Blow to Freedom of the PressWith the decision by Britain's High Court that Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States, his high-profile case appears, at long last, to be coming to some sort of unfortunate end. Assange's fate will soon be in the hands of the U.S. federal courts, and it seems unlikely that either he or freedom of the press will emerge unscathed from the ordeal.
In a decision that heavily relies on the British government's history of believing official U.S. assurances, the High Court took on face value American claims that Assange will not be...
From the Left
The execution of Julian Assange: He exposed the crimes of empire — and that can't be toleratedLet us name Julian Assange's executioners. Joe Biden. Boris Johnson. Scott Morrison. Theresa May. Lenin Moreno. Donald Trump. Barack Obama. Mike Pompeo. Hillary Clinton. Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett and Justice Timothy Victor Holroyde. Crown Prosecutors James Lewis, Clair Dobbin and Joel Smith. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser. Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia Gordon Kromberg. William Burns, the director of the CIA. Ken McCallum, the director general of the U.K. Security Service, or MI5.
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From the Center
U.S. Wins Appeal in Julian Assange Case, Bringing His Extradition CloserThe U.S. government won an appeal in its bid to extradite Julian Assange, clearing an important hurdle in Washington’s yearslong battle to put the WikiLeaks founder on trial on spying charges.
The decision by the U.K. High Court to overturn a lower-court ruling isn’t the end of the case. Lawyers representing Mr. Assange said they would seek permission to appeal the ruling at the U.K. Supreme Court, setting the stage for weeks or even months of further legal wrangling, lawyers say.
In their ruling, Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett and Lord Justice...
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