Free Julian Assange exposes America's hypocrisy regarding press freedom in Gaza

On 20 May this year, two British judges gave Julian Assange another chance to appeal an earlier court decision that he should be extradited to stand trial in the United States. Last May’s ruling turned out to be a turning point in the long saga of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s battle against being handed over to the US to face 17 charges under the 1917 Espionage Act with a potential 175 years’ sentence or even the death penalty.

On that day, hundreds of supporters of Mr. Assange gathered outside the court house calling on the judges inside to allow their hero the right to appeal, which they eventually did. What caught my eye, while watching the news, is a single placard held up by one of the hundreds of his supporters. The heart-shaped sign reads: “truth is the heart of democracy”. This short, simple and straightforward sentence summed up the 13-year-long predicament Mr. Assange had to go through, while fighting against the tyranny and hegemonic practises of a superpower— the US. Truth reinforces and sustains democracy, while lies and cover-ups weaken it.

Now that the man is free and back to his country, Australia, whose Labour Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, made his freedom a top priorities, it is worth reflecting on what has essentially changed about the perception of the US, not only as a superpower but also how it is willing to silence criticism of its foreign policies, despite lecturing the world about free speech and the public’s right to know.

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What Wikileaks did is simple journalistic work that thousands of journalists around the world do every day: tell the truth to help the public navigate and understand the murky politics, spying practices and, above all, the entanglement of politics and corruption with its detrimental consequential repercussions for the average person.

The entire world and, particularly that of journalism, has changed dramatically the moment WikiLeaks appeared as a simple depository of otherwise secret and hidden documents, spying networks and governments’ deliberate attempts to mislead and manipulate the very people who trusted them. The world of politics, after Julian Assange launched his organisation in 2006, is much better, more transparent, more accountable and less corrupt than it was before. Above all, it could be said that WikiLeaks gave a voice to the voiceless that hardly has access to the mainstream corporate media. It broke the taboo that secret government documents, including war plans that kill millions, are sacred and should never be seen by the public. It also made the idea of citizen journalist attainable and a real alternative to government censorship and information control, just as the internet made anonymous whistle-blowing an effective tool, in most cases, to hold governments and companies to account.

In an interview with the German Der Spiegel magazine, published in 2015, Assange described his organisation as a “giant library of the world’s most persecuted documents”, and WikiLeaks gives them “asylum … and analyze them, promote them and obtain more”.

Without actually agreeing with many of Mr. Assange’s practices and ethics, the man came to represent what media is all about and what free speech means in today’s interconnected, yet heavily censored, world.

Most importantly, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange personally challenged three US presidents and the entire justice system by simply exposing its hypocritical approach and double standard interpretations of the free press it claims to honour. The same US that spent millions of taxpayer money over the last seven years to have Mr. Assange imprisoned and, maybe killed, still claims journalists and media workers should be protected.

This double standard is nowhere to be seen so clearly and starkly than in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has, so far, killed nearly 200 media workers while completely shutting even its own media from access to the enclave, while its most criminal army in the world, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), kills around 100 children every day.

READ: Israel’s seeks emergency law to silence media coverage of Gaza war

The release of Julian Assange at this time makes the case for accountability of IDF more important and urgent than it has ever been, despite its decades-long criminal history. Without the US protection and assistance, IDF and Israeli decision makers would find it harder to restrict media access to information and far less possible to kill journalists simply because they are doing their jobs.

The release of Mr. Assange brings back to mind the case of the late Palestinian Al-Jazeera reporter, Shireen Abu Akleh, as another example of the pinnacle of US double standards and deceit when it comes to press freedom. The slain reporter is an American citizen killed by an IDF sniper, on 11 May, 2022, and yet the US chose to ignore the case. It failed to even press Israel hard enough to allow US investigators to check the facts of the case on the ground. In fact, the US State Department’s July 2022 statement said it cannot say for sure that an IDF bullet killed Abu Akleh when everybody else, including rights groups, said it was an Israeli bullet that killed her.   Furthermore when Al-Jazeera filed a request for investigation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) the US said it “oppose[s]the case” advising, instead, the International Court to “focus on its core mission”.  When the time came for the ICC to focus on its core mission of prosecuting genocide perpetrators the US, again, rejected the move and even threatened Court staff, including the ICC’s Prosecutor, Karim Khan, himself. The big lesson coming from Julian Assange’s release is this: the truth will prevail, however long it takes and the truth as the heart of democracy will endure, otherwise democracy becomes another manipulated hollow slogan defined by the stronger against the weaker. Forced to give up its case against Mr. Assange, the US should now realise that it cannot do whatever it wishes to silence others and bury the truth. This episode should make the US more honest in protecting journalists and guarding free speech, starting with Gaza.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.