It does not mean that journalism is any less imperiled. Editors and publishers of five international media outlets -- The New York Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais and DER SPIEGEL -- which published stories based on documents released by WikiLeaks, have urged that the U.S. charges be dropped and Julian be released. None of these media executives were charged with espionage.
It does not dismiss the ludicrous ploy by the U.S. government to extradite an Australian citizen whose publication is not based in the United States and charge him under the Espionage Act. It continues the long Dickensian farce that mocks the most basic concepts of due process.
This ruling is based on the grounds that the U.S. government did not offer sufficient assurances that Julian would be granted the same First Amendment protections afforded to a U.S. citizen, should he stand trial. The appeal process is one more legal hurdle in the persecution of a journalist who should not only be free, but feted and honored as the most courageous of our generation.
Yes. He can file an appeal. But this means another year, perhaps longer, in harsh prison conditions as his physical and psychological health deteriorates.
He has spent more than five years in HMS Belmarsh without being charged. He spent seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy because the U.K. and Swedish governments refused to guarantee that he wouldn’t be extradited to the United States, even though he agreed to return to Sweden to aid a preliminary investigation that was eventually dropped.
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