Assange Extradition Trial Start Sees Journalists Back Him

Some 1200 journalists have taken up the cause of jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as his extradition trial will begin Feb. 24 in London. He is facing espionage charges in the US.

Assange angered American officials for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables showing stark criticism of world leaders as well as a classified military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff.

The case has become a cause célèbre for his supporters but journalists, particularly in his homeland of Australia, had been slow to show support. Assange’s fate is likely to have strong impact on freedom of expression worldwide.
Journalists from 98 countries released a joint statement in his defense as the US is seeking to use the Espionage Act against someone for publishing information provided by a whistleblower for the very first time. In 2013, ex-intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, was convicted by a U.S. Army court-martial for leaking the secret cables to WikiLeaks.

“It is very rare for journalists to join together and speak up on an issue. Indeed, the size and breadth of this joint journalists’ statement may be unprecedented,” spokesperson Serena Tinari said of the journalists’ mass action.
Reporters often use confidential sources for stories. The attempt to convict Assange has seen other governments, especially Australia, put the clamps on journalists and try to get at their sources for stories showing wrongdoing, even criminalizing their work.

The Committee to Protect Journalists Deputy Director Robert Mahoney said that, “The extradition of Julian Assange to the United States to stand trial for his groundbreaking work with WikiLeaks would deal a body blow to First Amendment rights and press freedom. The UK should deny this request.”

Judge Vanessa Baraitser will hear arguments as to why he should or should not be sent to the US. Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, argues journalists will be tied to the fate of this man who revealed American military operations in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We are talking about collateral murder, evidence of war crimes,” she said. “They are a remarkable resource for those of us seeking to hold governments to account for abuses,” she said, the news agency reported.

Baraitser agreed that the case will get under way before being postponed until May 18 when it will resume again for a further three weeks to allow both sides more time to gather evidence and as the stakes have risen for journalists and whistleblowers.

Assange’s lawyers said in preliminary hearings that they would argue he was being sought for political offenses and that the treaty banned extradition on those grounds. The start of the trial comes some 10 months after Ecuador lifted asylum, allowing Assange to be taken out of that country’s embassy in London and jailed, with reports his health is failing.

The hearing won’t decide if Assange is guilty of any wrongdoing, but whether the extradition request meets the requirements set out under a 2003 UK-US treaty which critics said weighs heavily in favor of the American government.