The Case of Julian Assange

                                                                                     

 

From my own ethical standpoint, I find it quite difficult to condone Julian Assange’s actions, yet I also understand why there is such a significant amount of controversy concerning the overall effects a ruling conducive to his extradition back to the US would ultimately have on press freedom. If extradited back to the US, the Wikileaks founder could find himself facing up to 175 years in federal prison - essentially a life sentence. 

Although I may appear to be resolute about my beliefs concerning the brilliant and innovative computer hacker, I found that in order to train myself to be a more quality journalist as opposed to a more biased one, it is imperative that I properly educate myself on all of the relevant facts in order to fully understand the opposite sides of an argument, not just this one. Firstly, it is important for me to understand the effects Wikileaks had on our country.
 
The non-profit organization was founded in 2006 with the purpose of allowing public access to federal documents as well as other highly confidential, censored material and other forms of journalism leaks. It is to promote whistle-blowing journalism and activism in order to protect our censorship and press rights as uninformed citizens. It serves as a source of transparency from our government that we, otherwise, would not have received.

 The significant issue at hand is the major violation of the Espionage Act of 1917 which clearly states that it is against the federal law to obtain any official documentation or recordings - especially ones pertaining to our national defense, as certain foreign countries could potentially view that leaked information as valuable and could, essentially, harm the US. 

Opportunism or heroism on the part of Assange? That seems to be the contentious question of the year. Though, I understand why he felt the need to found an organization based solely on leaking federal information and international communications for the sake of eradicating censorship, I believe that he does deserve to be extradited because what he did was against the law and he knows it as well, otherwise why else would he have leaked all of that information? 

It was also a decision on his part that could have jeopardized the well-being of our a whole country by making all of that confidential information accessible to anyone around the world. That is what I believe as of now, but I am maintaining an open mind as I keep tabs on the case. 

Sources: 



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