Treatment of Assange was a shameful stain on our First Amendment

Tuesday’s release of Julian Assange from 14 years of confinement is to be celebrated on humanitarian grounds. But as we celebrate his return to his wife and children, let us take this moment to examine how our nation, once the global champion of press freedom, came to persecute this brave journalist.

There is a reason why the Founding Fathers enshrined freedom of the press in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is crucial for democracy to function. Democracy requires transparency. Without it, government cannot be accountable to the public. A vigorous free press makes the workings of government visible, focusing foremost on that which the government wants to hide.

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President John F. Kennedy understood well that secrecy is inimical to democracy. In his address to the American Newspaper Publishers in 1961, he stated, "The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it."

In JFK’s time, it was the Soviet Bloc that jailed journalists and dissidents. It was the Soviet Bloc that used a captive press to disseminate government propaganda. It was the Soviet Bloc that used the legal system as an instrument of political repression. The Julian Assange saga shows us that we are in danger of becoming the very kind of authoritarian society that previous generations of Americans struggled so hard to overcome.

The pretext for the legal and diplomatic assault on Julian Assange was that he stole U.S. military secrets, thereby endangering national security and the lives of U.S. service members. In fact, Wikileaks redacted its releases to protect individuals; it was reporters from The Guardian who published the password giving access to the unredacted files. In any event, the real reason for Assange’s persecution was that he published information highly embarrassing to the U.S. government. He had to be stopped – lest more secrets about its war crimes, corruption, torture programs and cover-ups come to light.

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In other words, Julian Assange was crushed as a warning to journalists everywhere. He spent 14 years in confinement, including five years in Britain’s harsh Belmarsh prison and seven years trapped in the Ecuadorian Embassy before that. Yet, until the plea bargain that got him released on Tuesday, the only crime for which he was convicted was jumping bail, a misdemeanor charge. 

Obviously, his five years in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement in a maximum security prison served something other than justice. The purpose was intimidation – not of Assange himself, but of any journalist who contemplates exposing embarrassing secrets of the U.S. government. 

The fact that liberals and conservatives united in pushing Assange’s persecution is significant. At first, the left cheered Assange when he exposed Bush-era war crimes, but soon soured on him when Wikileaks proved willing to embarrass the Obama administration as well. Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden all concurred with the brutal destruction of the life of this brave journalist.

Their unanimity demonstrates the extent to which America has abandoned its founding ideals. Instead of welcoming a free press, our leaders have subverted it. The mainstream media has become an instrument of government propaganda, amplifying government messaging. Those journalists, and the media that platform them, who dare to challenge government statements suffer censorship and the assaults of weaponized government agencies. Corporate advertisers collude with government favoritism, avoiding platforms that deviate from the official script. 

The next president must set matters aright before it is too late. He must end the war on journalism, end the censorship, secrecy and surveillance, and resist the temptation to use the powers of government to destroy political opponents. The campaign against Julian Assange was not an isolated event. It was a sign of the times.

Times may change though. What it will take to change them isn’t just a new president, although when I am in office I will do everything I can to reverse our authoritarian course. What it will take is for the public to cease tolerating the usurpation of key rights and freedoms. It will take courage from journalists as well, to defy the warning of Assange’s persecution. 

Fortunately, Assange’s release bodes well for this possibility of a democratic resurgence. His release was not the result of some generous whim on the part of President Biden. We must instead thank the tireless work of his family and close supporters, the journalists who kept his cause in the public eye, and also the millions of citizens around the world, especially in Australia, who refused to be silent until justice was done.

That struggle is not over. Assange deserves more than a plea bargain – he deserves a full pardon and restitution for unjust punishment. And the public deserves a government that respects freedom of press, freedom of speech, and the impartial rule of law. Let us not rest until those are achieved.