It is not only about a man who is imprisoned for the crime of good journalism, but also about the idea that everyone should be entitled to denounce the crime of the most powerful and tyrannical peoples in the world.
While this month the founding of WikiLeaks for the 17th century. Sometimes it is worth taking a moment to think about Julian Assange and what his persecution means for us and our society.
Because in the truest sense of the word, it is not just a man who is imprisoned in the Belmarsh prison because of good journalism – it is about journalism itself. This is the idea that everyone should be entitled to denounce the crime of the most powerful and tyrannical peoples in the world. This is the idea that the public should be allowed to find out what abuses the US empire is committed in the world.
Julian Assange is the world's largest journalist. While Assange revolutionized source protection in the digital age with the founding of WikiLeaks 17 years ago, and then some of the biggest stories of the 21st. In the century, he placed himself around a long time about any other journalist living on earth. And while he shows the world that they can put the world's greatest journalists in prison for the revelation of uncomfortable truths, they show the world that they can imprison everyone.
That has always been what it has been about. It is not a question of whether Assange crossed an arbitrary procedural border when he worked with Chelsea Manning to expose American war crimes. The US is not interested in protecting its national security. It is not about excusing other justifications made by people, their obvious support for persecuting a journalist because he is pursuing journalism.
It is about setting a legal precedent that allows the US empire to deliver anyone around the world to anyone who reveals uncomfortable facts. It is about showing all journalists around the world that if they can do it with the greatest of them, they can do it with everyone. And as with so many things in today's world, it is the control of narratives.
To accept the persecution of Julian Assange is to accept the idea that all media around the world must function as propaganda organs of the US government.
It should be taken for granted that every media-creating person somewhere in the world who chooses to pursue genuine journalism and, in the public interest, to uncover uncomfortable facts about the powerful, must be imprisoned until they can be delivered to the USA for a show trial, in order to be left way in one of the most draconian prison systems.
One should accept that we will never live in a society based on truth and oriented towards facts and information, and that we must always resign ourselves to living in a society dominated by the whim of the powerful.
Your attitude to the Assange case is thus your attitude towards the kind of society in which we should hope to live, and the kind of future that we should hope to have. This is in a very real way your attitude towards humanity itself.
Should humanity try to create a better world, or should we continue to sink into dystopias until we are drawn into a nuclear war or environmental disaster by those in power who are not allowed to be called into question?
Do we want to turn to light or to darkness?
Your attitude towards Assange shows your answer to these questions and clarifies the path that you believe we should go.
The translation from French was created by Doris Fischer from the voluntary Pressenza translation team. We are looking for volunteers!
