Julian Assange, co-founder of whisteblowing website WikiLeaks, is facing extradition to the US after Ecuador revoked his political asylum and he was arrested in London. Many have called such an action a threat to freedom of press. The petition ‘Free Julian Assange’ has garnered over one lakh signatures to date.
ThePrint asks: ‘Free Julian Assange’ petition goes viral: Why is the world so invested in his release?
Both the Hard-Left and the Alt-Right in the US support Julian Assange
Reporter, ThePrint
A range of diverse groups are currently supporting Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks. Often these groups don’t have much in common, but they have all found a common cause with this issue.
To begin with, the most compelling supporters of Assange ask for his release based on ideas of freedom of press. They argue that if an American court indicts Assange, it would set a terrible precedent – it would allow courts to routinely inspect journalistic sources and material.
They also argue that the case against Assange has got nothing to do with the 2016 US Presidential election and the alleged role of WikiLeaks in leaking Hilary Clinton-related documents. Thus, Assange needs to be judged only for as his role as a publisher of classified government documents, which they argue is a legitimate journalistic practise.
Interestingly, both the Hard-Left and the Alt-Right support Assange. In 2016, WikiLeaks published leaked emails of Clinton and her staff at crucial moments of the electoral campaign – with the intention of favouring Bernie Sanders and then Donald Trump. Thus, the supporters of Sanders and Trump are now asking for the release of Assange.
There seems to be one more factor that’s driving the support for Assange. Countries across the Western world are witnessing a massive surge in anti-establishment sentiment. In such a scenario, it is not surprising that a whistleblower would get significant traction.
Also read: Is Assange a journalist? It depends what year you ask
People depend on leak of confidential information to know what their governments are up to
Assistant editor, ThePrint
The petition shows that many people across the world hail Julian Assange as a free-speech icon. Assange is a journalist and WikiLeaks has an unparalleled record in investigative journalism. If he is punished for just doing his job, it will possibly endanger every other media house that publishes factual but embarrassing information that governments want to hide from the public.
Assange’s extradition to the US would mean that journalists are fair game. This would endanger media professionals, particularly in the developing world where independent reporting is already under threat.
Yes, Assange’s case is complicated; it is a morally tangled web. He has published things, which should not always be published. But, he has also published things, which should have never been hidden.
The massive support for Assange is also driven by the fact that people around the world depend on leak of confidential information to know what their governments are up to. Governments must never forget that they are not supposed to hide information from the people they serve.
Those defending Julian Assange know WikiLeaks may not have upheld any journalistic values
Journalist, ThePrint
Situations without precedents are the most difficult to deal with. The difficulty lies not just in lack of any available resolution mechanism, but also in ensuring that a wrong precedent is not set once the situation has been resolved/settled.
Julian Assange’s case belongs to this category. A few decades ago, even if a journalist exposed a scandal like Watergate, at most, he/she could have brought down a sitting President. In today’s digitally interconnected world, WikiLeaks’ exposés can have global ramifications even as the site may not have upheld any of the journalistic values (as exemplified by its release of tonnes of classified data without redaction, which has put innocent lives in danger).
While this reality is not lost on those defending Assange, they fear that his indictment in the US might seriously jeopardise press freedom. Obviously, any possible indictment in a democratic state, like the US, will be based on far more technical grounds than just a leak of classified state secrets. But technicalities are frequently post-facto justifications and some Pandora’s boxes better not be opened.
Journalists and activists have to stand against those in power, and Julian Assange gives them a cause
Senior copy editor, ThePrint
By virtue of his creation’s reach, Julian Assange is of extreme interest to the community he represents in countries across the world: that of the rights activists. WikiLeaks, the non-profit organisation that he founded in 2006, started by publishing materials exposing US war crimes and expanded to cover corruptions and scandals in nearly every country on this planet.
Several media houses that had initially collaborated with Julian Assange in publishing secret government documents later broke ties with him because the Australian activist began publishing files with scant regard for the safety of sources. But the same group of journalists and rights activists stand by him today because they also know that Julian Assange could not possibly be their main enemy but those he and his organisation have exposed and continue to do so. They know his possible extradition and subsequent indictment could arm the governments to go after people publishing confidential information that shouldn’t be hidden from the public in the first place.
Another aspect about Julian Assange’s arrest that makes everyone unite is the knowledge that WikiLeaks revelations seldom forces the governments and those in power to act – because the materials indict the ones hiding them. Even after the massive expose of US’ war crimes committed in Afghanistan and Iraq, not one person in the US was ever held accountable. The only ones who went to jail were Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning – the two people who exposed the crimes. It’s those in power that activists and journalists fight against all the time, and the support to Julian Assange stems from there.