WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange is slowly dying in a UK prison, as the US maintains its fight to have him die in theirs – but there is hope
It’s terrifying, because [the magistrate] agrees with the US prosecutors on every single point on free speech and the ability to prosecute and extradite journalists,” she tells me. “It means that any government, anywhere around the world, can seek to prosecute and extradite a British-based or British citizen journalist who has published truthful information.”
In an astonishing cave-in to US prosecutors, the court agreed that despite most of the publications having occurred while Assange was in the United Kingdom and Europe, “the conduct in this case occurred in the US because the publication of the materials caused harm to the interests of the US”.
It’s a shocking precedent: the judgement accepted US prosecutors’ arguments that national-security journalism can be considered a form of espionage no matter where it occurs, leaving other publishers and journalists open to being charged as spies.