Julian Assange, Australian hacker and founder of WikiLeaks, was facing a potential 175 years in prison after being charged with violating the Espionage Act which accused his role in compromising classified US information. Before this, Assange has already spent seven years in a London-based Ecuadorian embassy to escape US extradition and a subsequent five years in the nearby Belmarsh prison after being kicked out. Recently, US District Judge Ramona Manglona pronounced Assange a “free man” after his long-awaited plea deals on the Northern Mariana Islands ended in his favor.
Spanning multiple continents and three US presidential administrations, Assange’s story was highly polarizing, illustrating a “stunning resolution between the intersection of press freedom and national security.”
The rise of WikiLeaks
35-year-old Assange believed in the importance of reality, a concept he would later irritate to be “an aspect of property [that] must be seized.” Hence, WikiLeaks, a website where Assange published sensitive information from whistle-blowers, was built in 2006. From drone strikes in Yemen and exchanging Guantanamo prisoners to Belgium to secret campaign emails of Macron and Tibetan uprisings, WikiLeaks exposed the deepest and darkest secrets of how countries conducted their intelligence, wars, and diplomacy. However, the sources remained largely anonymous, even to Assange.
It was not until 2010 that WikiLeaks would gain worldwide attention. American Intelligence Analyst Chelsea Manning had just uploaded 90,000 classified US military records onto the website. These documents centered on US military war crimes in Iraqi and Afghan wars – hidden operations where the US military was seen executing Iraqi families and unprecedented statistical detail outlining Iraqi casualties in numbers never before imagined.
Most notably, striking footage showing US helicopters firing on a surrendering Iraqi family with children, walking along with Reuter journalists was leaked. Reuters had tried to obtain the video through the ‘Freedom of Information Act’, but requests ended without success. Unfortunately, the video was merely a sneak glance into the 15,000 cases of civilians who suffered the same fate at the hands of the US military in Iraq. Among them were journalists who carried cameras not guns.
The public reaction
The leaks saw mixed reactions; Pentagon officials were astounded and furious while others praised Assange for his bravery. “The United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of classified information,” said Hilliary Clinton, “while there have been cases in which official conduct has been made public in the name of exposing wrongdoings or misdeeds. This is not one of those cases,” she added.
Conversely, Assange became the public face of radical transparency. “The role that Julian Assange has played in exposing uncomfortable truths is something he should be very proud of,” said Jeremy Corbyn, former head of the Labour Party in the UK.
“It’s the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers, and when powerful abusers are taken on, there’s always a back reaction,” Assange exclaimed in a subsequent interview.
Evading capture: Assange and US elections
The following sequels of Assange’s life were spent evading capture from the US, which in 2012, charged Assange with sexual misconduct allegations with a mandatory investigation in Sweden. Knowing the allegations may silently extend beyond misconduct, Assange sought asylum in inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
As weeks turned into months, which turned into years, Assange battled the constant spectacle of police outside the building while occasionally stepping onto the balcony to deliver speeches. Confined within concrete walls, Assange told CNN reporters that the experience felt like “living in a space station,” elaborating on the absence of “natural light” and how “you’ve gotta make all your own stuff.”
Meanwhile, Assange strategically published emails stolen from the US democratic party on WikiLeaks from the embassy, an act that would significantly damage the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton and instrumentally aid Trump’s 2016 election.
However, Trump’s public liking for Assange would soon change after WikiLeaks revealed major CIA cyber warfare strategy documents, leaving CIA intelligence tools in vain. In addition, Assange would go on to leak classified information regarding the then newly elected Ecuadorian president, which, combined with his increased restless attitude within the embassy, would get him kicked out as an Ecuadorian ‘national insult’ after seven long years.
Immediately arrested after stepping out, Assange was sent to Belmarsh prison, where UN officials diagnosed him with having experienced severe psychological trauma due to medical neglect, unwarranted isolation, and significant deterioration of physical health.
What was Assange charged with?
In Assange’s 18-count indictment, the Espionage Act charge saw the potential of landing Assange a sentence of over 100 years. The act, passed in WWI, was meant to punish members of the American government who had illicitly disclosed governmental secrets that favored any foreign nation or had injured the US.
While Assange, unlike Manning, held Australian citizenship and fulfilled no part of being in the American government nor violated any security clearance, he was deemed a “punishable principle” as he had “aided an offense against the US,” according to the US federal law. In other words, Assange was charged with communicating classified documents to the world through the act of publishing.
What does this mean for journalism?
On one hand, many saw Assange’s case as a censorship of journalistic truth, a tool of the people to gain the fragile and disappearing authority of holding governments accountable. They argued while the same leaked content was published by major media like The Guardian and The New York Times, none were punished. Corroborating this, Assange’s Lawyer Jen Robinson concluded the deal as a “criminalization of journalism” that had set a “dangerous precedent.”
On the other, people saw the media as perpetrators, not watchdogs, blaming them for lengthening the time Assange spent behind bars by uncritically parroting the one thing that Assange and activists are fighting not to do: to fabricate headlines that paint a narcissistic persona of an individual who had no freedom in choice nor business in politics.
Where is Assange now?
A year and a half ago, Assange’s lawyer made a plea to the Justice Department to drop the case – a request untenable at first but later turned into a misdemeanor plea that would allow Assange to enter remotely outside the 50 states. There, Assange headed for US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands where he was sentenced to time already served and ultimately allowed to return home.
Upon return, Assange was met with waves of welcome. “This government engages in persistent, determined advocacy on behalf of Australians, and we did so on this occasion,” said Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Other Australian officials also played fundamental roles in Assange’s release; Assange would tell Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that he had “saved his life.”
“It’s a whirlwind of emotions, it feels like it’s not real,” said Assange’s wife Stella Assange, after sharing a warm reunion with her husband
When questioned if the Assange’s deal may affect Australian-US relations Albanese notes that “we have a very positive relationship with the United States. I regard President Biden as a friend, I regard their relationship as being absolutely central.” While this case has come to a temporary end, it is still unclear what the future holds, both for Assange and journalism.
Written by Julia Jiang
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