Critics note that Blinken’s vow to support ‘independent journalists’ does not apply to Julian Assange

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday pledged that the United States “will always support the indispensable work of independent journalists around the world,” a pledge that the Biden administration refused to apply to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, which the US government is trying to sue. for disclosing classified information revealing war crimes in Iraq and elsewhere.

“The United States believes that all journalists, regardless of nationality, wherever they are, have a legal obligation to keep the dirty secrets of the American government. Now, I’m sorry, but it’s not “support” journalists. ” – Clare Daly, European Parliament

“We will not tolerate efforts to intimidate them or silence their voices,” Blinken tweeted, referring specifically to Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and critic of the Iranian government. Alinejad, who currently works as a television host for Voice of America Persian News Network, a US government-funded outlet, said Iranian intelligence agents recently attempted to kidnap her from her New York home.

Critics were quick to note that Blinken’s expression of support for Alinejad and “independent journalists around the world” has yet to be extended to Assange, as the Biden administration has continued the attempt to his predecessor to extradite the publisher from the United Kingdom, where he spent more than two years in maximum security prison.

“All American media should castigate this comment and refer to Assange, but they won’t, because they suck,” political commentator Kyle Kulinski tweeted in response to Blinken’s remark.

Clare Daly, Socialist Member of the European Parliament, noted that “the result of the ongoing Trump / Biden lawsuits against Julian Assange is that the United States believes that all journalists, regardless of nationality, wherever they are , have a legal obligation to keep the United States dirty government secrets. “

“Now I’m sorry, but that’s not ‘supporting’ reporters,” Daly added.

In January, a British judge rejected the Trump administration’s request to extradite Assange on the grounds that the brutal American prison system posed a threat to the publisher’s life. Despite pressure from press freedom groups to drop the charges, the Biden administration appealed the judge’s ruling in February and has since vowed to let Assange serve his potential 175-year sentence in his prison. country of origin, Australia.

International rights organizations have always maintained that prosecuting Assange for publishing classified information – something journalists frequently do – would pose a serious threat to press freedom around the world.

“Journalists from major news organizations speak regularly with sources, ask for clarification or more documentation, and receive and publish documents that the government considers secret. In our opinion, such a precedent in this case could effectively criminalize these common journalistic practices, ”said a coalition of press freedom groups wrote in a letter to Biden’s Justice Department earlier this year. .

Since the Biden administration’s appeal of the UK judge’s extradition decision, new revelations about the US government’s case against Assange have sparked growing calls for an end to the prosecution and his immediate release from prison.

In an interview with Icelandic newspaper Stundin last month, a key witness against Assange admitted to fabricating accusations the US government used in its indictment (pdf) of the founder of WikiLeaks. Common Dreams reported the news of Sigurdur Thordarson’s admission earlier this month, but corporate media in the United States largely ignored the flashback.

As Jacobin’s Branko Marcetic sums it up:

the [U.S. government’s] indictments, among others, that Assange asked Thordarson to “commit computer intrusions” and secretly register high-ranking Icelandic officials, including members of parliament; that they tried to decrypt a “stolen” file from an Icelandic bank; that Assange attempted to use “unauthorized access given to him by a source” to use a government website that tracks police vehicles; and that he had ordered and encouraged Thordarson to establish a relationship with a hacking group, which would hack and illegally obtain documents to forward to WikiLeaks. All of these claims, Thordarson has now admitted to Stundin, are either very misleading or outright false, the newspaper reports.

“No one should be under the illusion that Blinken or Joe Biden are genuinely concerned about press freedom, of course, as the actions of the administration in the first six months of his tenure just make sure to liberal voters that this presidency is different from that of Trump, ”Marcetic continued. “But it’s a lot harder to do when a key piece of the case that Assange was not just a publisher of official secrets, but a criminal running global hacking operations, turns out to have been fabricated.”

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