(London) Five Media (The New York Times, The Guardian, El País, The world and Der Spiegel) on Monday called on the US government to drop charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over a massive leak of documents.
The 51-year-old Australian is being prosecuted in the United States for having published from 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan, at the origin of a series of revelations published in particular by these five newspapers. He faces 175 years in prison.
Arrested by British police in 2019 after seven years in confinement at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, he is currently being held in a high-security prison near London pending consideration of his appeal against the British government’s decision to extradite him.
“Collecting and disseminating sensitive information when it is necessary for the public interest constitutes an essential part of the daily work of journalists”, write the editors and managing directors of the five newspapers.
“If this work is criminalized, not only the quality of public debate but also our democracies will be considerably weakened. »
They believe that “twelve years after the first publications”, “it is time for the United States government to drop its charges against Julian Assange”, “publishing is not a crime”.
The rostrum recalls that the editors of the five newspapers had “deemed it necessary to publicly criticize his attitude in 2011 when unredacted versions of the diplomatic cables were made public, and some of us remain concerned about the accusation in the US lawsuit that he aided in the computer intrusion into a classified database.
“But we stand together today to express our great concern at the endless legal proceedings that Julian Assange is undergoing,” insists the forum.
Its authors point out that the recourse, launched under the American presidency of Donald Trump, to a text dating from 1917 to fight against spies “had never been used against journalists, media or broadcasters”.
“Such an indictment creates a dangerous precedent” and “threatens the freedom to inform”.
Last month, US Attorney General Merrick Garland issued new, more protective guidelines for journalists, but did not hint at any definitive consequences for Julian Assange.
They authorize the prosecution of journalists suspected of acting as agents of foreign powers and advocate a case-by-case approach to cases involving persons who are not necessarily journalists in the traditional sense of the term.