Opinion -‘War on journalism’: Snowden slams US indictment against Assange

‘War on journalism’: Snowden slams US indictment against Assange
By ICH and Agencies

May 25, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - The fate of journalism as we know it is now at stake, after Washington indicted Julian Assange under the Espionage Act, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden tweeted in reaction to 17 new charges against the WikiLeaks founder.

“The Department of Justice just declared war – not on Wikileaks, but on journalism itself,” Snowden tweeted Thursday, adding “this is no longer about Julian Assange: This case will decide the future of media.”
The Department of Justice just declared war––??not on Wikileaks, but on journalism itself. This is no longer about Julian Assange: This case will decide the future of media. https://t.co/a5WHmTCDpg
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) May 23, 2019

The Thursday charges threaten to put Assange behind bars for over 170 years, if he is convicted.

WikiLeaks has too reacted by slamming the move as “madness” and declaring “the end of national security journalism” and even the First Amendment itself.
This is madness. It is the end of national security journalism and the first amendment. https://t.co/wlhsmsenFw
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) May 23, 2019

Assange was arrested by British authorities in April after spending almost seven years under political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Washington is seeking the journalist’s extradition, having previously unsealed an indictment against Assange alleging conspiracy to hack Pentagon computers in 2010.

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The war on Julian #Assange is now a war on all. Eighteen absurd charges including espionage send a burning message to every journalist, every publisher. The target today is #Assange. Tomorrow it will be you on the New York Times, you on the BBC. Modern fascism is breaking cover.
— John Pilger (@johnpilger) May 23, 2019

The charges against Assange are equally dangerous for US journalists who uncover the secrets of other nations. If the US can prosecute a foreign publisher for violating our secrecy laws, there’s nothing preventing China, or Russia, from doing the same.
— ACLU (@ACLU) May 23, 2019

All those who spent the last 2+ years proclaiming to be so very concerned about attacks on a free press will now have to decide whether they really meant it, or whether - due to feelings about Assange - they will cheer the Trump Administration's frontal assault on press freedom: https://t.co/4yW1DB58wP
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 23, 2019

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