My latest at The Week, “Today the Pentagon Papers are hailed by many as an example of how a free press and people function. Yet Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a leading Jan. 6 committee member who has positioned herself as a defender of democracy against former President Donald Trump and his supporters, wanted Iceland’s government to shut down Wikileaks. ‘I would like to see them move aggressively to prosecute Mr. Assange,’ Cheney said in 2010, adding, ‘what he’s done is very clearly aiding and abetting al Qaeda.’ She’s far from the only leader on the Jan. 6 committee who feels this way.

“If Assange were found guilty of espionage for his actions, there is good reason to fear it would have a chilling effect on America’s free press and do irreparable harm to our democracy,” @jackhunter74 writes.https://t.co/ZtAxgzIZgZ

— The Week (@TheWeek) December 19, 2021

A free press is the cornerstone of any democratic society. Some will continue to argue whether the problematic Assange is actually a journalist, just as some now debate whether the Jan. 6 attack represents something greater than just the chaos of that day. But if Assange were found guilty of espionage for his actions, there is good reason to fear it would have a chilling effect on America’s free press and do irreparable harm to our democracy.”

Read the entire column.

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Tulsi’s right.

#FreeAssange https://t.co/jLbM9jSNzf

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 14, 2021

The post Free Assange appeared first on Liberty Tree.

Reason’s J.D. Tucille writes, ”The US government’s indictment poses a grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad,’ Amnesty International objected to the U.K. High Court decision. ‘If upheld, it would undermine the key role of journalists and publishers in scrutinizing governments and exposing their misdeeds would leave journalists everywhere looking over their shoulders.’

Everybody should get journalistic freedom, not just people who publish what the government likes. https://t.co/u0N1mF0THU

— reason (@reason) December 13, 2021

‘Today’s ruling is an alarming setback for press freedom in the United States and around the world, and represents a notable escalation in the use of the Espionage Act in the ‘War on Whistleblowers’ that has expanded through the past several presidential administrations,’ the Freedom of the Press Foundation commented…

‘This is the first indictment of a journalist and editor or publisher, Julian Assange,’ Daniel Ellsberg, who released the documents that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers, pointed out in 2019. ‘I see on the indictment, which I’ve just read, that one of the charges is that he encouraged Chelsea Manning and Bradley Manning to give him documents, more documents, after she had already given him hundreds of thousands of files. Well, if that’s a crime, then journalism is a crime, because just on countless occasions I have been harassed by journalists for documents, or for more documents than I had yet given them.”

Read the entire column.

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FEE’s Hannah Cox writes, “Despite the bipartisan hatred of Assange, the only people who should be facing criminal charges in this entire scenario are the people throughout our government who are responsible for the war crimes revealed by WikiLeaks, Assange, and Manning.

Assange was merely doing what the vast majority of the mainstream media has long since neglected: his job. https://t.co/iDrULNRFIN

— FEE (@feeonline) December 10, 2021

Assange was merely doing what the vast majority of the mainstream media has long since neglected: his job. Without this kind of reporting and actual journalism, US citizens would have no idea what our government is actually up to, the depths of corruption in our wars, the human rights violations we have carried out. how our tax dollars are really being spent, and what’s being done in our name. We need more of this kind of work, a lot more of it. And the prosecution of Assange does one thing and one thing alone—it scares other journalists from doing their jobs.”

Read the entire column.

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