[rad-green] The Assange Precedent: The Spark That Lit the Fire in the War on Journalism. Now Glenn Greenwald has been charged.

*https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/01/24/assange-precedent-spark-lit-fire-war-journalism
<https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/01/24/assange-precedent-spark-lit-fire-war-journalism>Common
Dreams           January 24, 2020*





*The Assange Precedent: The Spark That Lit the Fire in the War on
JournalismThis is the most important press freedom case of the 21st
century.by Nozomi Hayase*

[image: The public must engage in order to end this war on journalism.
(Photo: Jack Taylor/Getty Images)]

*The public must engage in order to end this war on journalism. (Photo:
Jack Taylor/Getty Images)*

At the hearing on Thursday, at Westminster in London, the timetable for
Julian Assange’s US extradition case was worked out. Assange’s US legal
teams made an application to have the extradition hearing split. His
defense lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, emphasized to the court that they won’t
be ready to call the main body of their evidence until after the first week
of the hearing, which is now set to start at the end of February.

Assange has been indicted on 17 counts of espionage, for his publishing of
documents concerning the US wars in Iran and Afghanistan, and torture in
the Guantanamo Bay prison. During his previous hearing on Monday, January
13, his lawyer, Gareth Peirce, raised concern about Assange’s lack of
access to legal counsel, making it difficult for him to adequately prepare
for his defense as he faces sentences that carry prison time of up to 175
years.

Recently, new evidence has emerged
<https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2019/11/18/news/a_massive_scandal_how_assange_his_doctors_lawyers_and_visitors_were_all_spied_on_for_the_u_s_-241314527/?refresh_ce>
showing
that the CIA hired the Spanish security company, US Global, to spy on
Assange inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, while Assange was living
under political asylum. The targets of this surveillance included his
lawyers, doctors and visitors. Now, three former employees of the company came
forward
<https://www.assangecampaign.org.au/julian-assange-23-january-case-summary/> as
witnesses confirming that their then-boss, David Morales, ordered workers
to install new embassy video cameras with audio recording capacity in
December 2017.

Outside the court after the hearing, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn
Hrafnsson said <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwK1tPdaHkY>, "We have now
learnt from submissions and affidavits presented by the US... that they do
not consider foreign nationals to have a First Amendment protection." He
reiterated how this is a political persecution of a journalist, and is a
grave attack on press freedom worldwide.

John Reed, a representative from “Don’t Extradite Assange”, the UK-based
campaign effort set up by WikiLeaks, also spoke
<https://twitter.com/NielsLadefoged/status/1220323392940920833> to the
press:

“If Assange is extradited he will immediately be placed under 'Special
Administrative Measures <https://ccrjustice.org/sams-report>'. That means
that he will not be able to speak to the press or the public, and neither
will his legal team... He will be put in a black hole ...".

He then alerted the public, “This is war on journalism. No journalism can
be safe in this current prosecution. If the trial of Julian Assange is
allowed to go ahead, this would happen.”

Assange’s legal team has been warning
<https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/24/exclusive_julian_assange_s_attorney_decries>
about
the threat to press freedom by the US government’s judicial overreach to
prosecute a foreign journalist, with their two-edged sword of denying the
First Amendment protection, while applying the Espionage Act.

The established media also warned of this when the charges against Assange
were first revealed in late 2018. The New York Times stated
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/us/politics/julian-assange-indictment-wikileaks.html>
on
the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder, “An indictment centering on the
publication of information of public interest … would create a precedent
with profound implications for press freedoms.” The Atlantic said
<https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/prosecuting-julian-assange-puts-free-press-risk/576166/?utm_term=2018-11-19T14%3A42%3A34&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter>,
“If the U.S. government can prosecute the WikiLeaks editor for publishing
classified material, then every media outlet is at risk”.

Now, the “Assange precedent” seems to be being quietly established. The
spark of the war on journalism now has enlarged. On Tuesday, Glenn
Greenwald, a journalist at The Intercept, was charged
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/world/americas/glenn-greenwald-brazil-cybercrimes.html>
with
cybercrimes in Brazil. Press-freedom groups swiftly came to his defense,
condemning the Brazilian government’s act of criminalization of journalism.
James Jaffer, director, knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia
University pointed out
<https://twitter.com/JameelJaffer/status/1219659658497069063> the striking
similarities between Greenwald’s and Assange’s case:

“Terrible to see this. The theory that journalists can be prosecuted for
publishing info that others obtained unlawfully (which I assume is the
theory here, notwithstanding prosecution spin) is of course the basis for
the US’s indictment of Assange, too.”

As the assault on the First Amendment escalates around the globe, Assange,
a prisoner of this war, remains in complete isolation in Belmarsh Prison in
London. Since September 22, 2019, he has been detained solely for the
purposes of the US extradition request.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, has raised
<https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/treatment-of-assange-putting-his-life-at-risk-un-expert/>
concerns
and indicated that Assange, whose health has entered a ‘downward spiral’
inside prison, is a victim of psychological torture.

Assange’s extradition hearing is now set to proceed in two parts from the
beginning of February 24, for one to two weeks and then continue further
from May 18 for three more weeks. This is the most important press freedom
case of the 21st century. The public must engage in order to end this war
on journalism.

Nozomi Hayase <http://www.commondreams.org/author/nozomi-hayase>, Ph.D., is
an essayist and author of *WikiLeaks, the Global Fourth Estate: History Is
Happening*
<https://www.amazon.com/WikiLeaks-Global-Fourth-Estate-Happening/dp/1984027182>.
Follow her on Twitter: @nozomimagine <https://twitter.com/nozomimagine>

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