A British judge has ordered the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, where he faces a 175-year sentence. The final decision on Assange’s extradition will now be made by U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel. Amnesty International’s Simon Crowther spoke outside the courthouse prior to today’s ruling.
Simon Crowther: “Julian Assange is being prosecuted for espionage for publishing sensitive material that was classified. And if he is extradited to the U.S. for this, all journalists around the world are going to have to look over their shoulder, because within their own jurisdiction, if they publish something that the U.S. considers to be classified, they will face the risk of being extradited.”
Reading through the indictment, I think a lot of the fury is because Assange didn’t redact vulnerable sources, and when confronted had a very callous attitude about threats to the life or liberty of people who were mentioned. A responsible journalist would redact information like that to protect them from reprisals. Like, there are plenty of journalists that criticize the government in the West and receive leaks, but they’re not having the US government chasing them across the Atlantic.
Not yet they’re not. Wait until a legal precedent is set with Assange (too many have been already) and any journalist the government doesn’t like the look of can be locked away or worse.
Whichever way you look at it, exposing sources in an unethical way just doesn’t warrant the treatment Assange has gotten nor the threat of three lifetimes in prison. This isn’t about that, nor is this isn’t about a really stretched charge of hacking, it’s about showing anti-imperialist and anti-war journalists and whistleblowers who’s in charge.