What is journalism? It is truth. It is fact. It is honest.
What is journalism not? Journalism is not opinion. Journalism is not commentary. Journalism is not bias.
So then who is Julian Assange? Julian Assange is the only man the First Amendment doesn't apply to. A watchdog journalist and the founder of WikiLeaks, Assange spent years exposing corruption. Yet now, he has spent years hiding, being brutalized, being violated, and now being killed by a government.
Many people wonder. Why does this even matter? Why does Assange not deserve to be prosecuted? Why does Assange deserve to be set free? What impact does this even have? Let's break it all down.
Julian Assange is one of the first journalists in decades to be charged with crimes under the Espionage Act. All prior journalists had their charges dropped and were set free. Assange has not been set free. In fact, he is currently in a Britain jail, dying while the United States fights to get ahold of him.
Not only did Julian Assange publish information that he was provided by someone else, he is not an American or a government employee. How can we prosecute a foreign journalist who operated in a foreign country under a law that seeks to punish American government employee?
What Assange did may have been seen as wring by some. However, Assange was a watchdog journalist. Watchdog journalism plays a vital role in our society and without Assange, war crimes would have never been exposed.
It is also important to note that Assange redacted all information which would compromise the safety of troops to ensure that they were never in harms way.
Why should we care about Assange? A conviction of Assange is the end of the free press. Never again will the government be held as accountable as now. Never again will corruption be exposed. Never again will journalists be safe.
So I leave you with this question: do you care about freedom of the press and truth? If your answer is yes, then you must care about Assange.
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