US charges Assange with publishing classified info

In a case with significant First Amendment implications, the United States filed new charges on Thursday against WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, accusing him of violating the Espionage Act by publishing secret documents containing the names of confidential military and diplomatic sources, The Associated Press reported.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting US Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely.

The US Justice Department's 18-count superseding indictment alleges that Assange directed former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the largest compromises of classified information in US history. It says the WikiLeaks co-founder, currently in custody in London, damaged national security by publishing documents that harmed the US and its allies and aided its adversaries.

Manning was convicted at a court-martial trial in 2013 to 35 years in jail but released in 2017 months after receiving clemency from outgoing US president Barack Obama. Manning leaked nearly 700,000 military files, including a battlefield video and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The case came amid a US Justice Department crackdown on national security leaks and raised immediate fear among news media advocates that Assange's actions - including soliciting and publishing classified information - are indistinguishable from what traditional journalists do on a daily basis. Those same concerns led Obama's government to balk at bringing charges for similar conduct, AP said.

Assange's lawyer, Barry Pollack, said on Thursday that the "unprecedented charges" against his client imperil "all journalists in their endeavor to inform the public about actions that have been taken by the US government". The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called the case a "dire threat" to media freedom, and the American Civil Liberties Union, a national organization that defends individual rights and liberties, said it was the first time in history a publisher was charged for disclosing truthful information.

Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in jail on May 2 for breaching the Bail Act in the UK after having been expelled from Ecuador's embassy in London, where he had lived for nearly seven years. He said at the time that he does not consent to being extradited to the US over charges related to leaking government secrets.

The US government has never successfully prosecuted a nongovernment official for publishing or sharing unlawfully leaked classified information, University of Chicago Law Professor Geoffrey Stone told NBC News, Xinhua reported.

"This is madness. It is the end of national security journalism and the first amendment." WikiLeaks tweeted.

(China Daily 05/25/2019 page8)