[EtherTyper]

Or for a more concrete example, look at how both Republicans and Democrats are treating Julian Assange. Investigative journalism and whistleblowing are under attack by all political factions and by the justice system, today. We cannot treat anti-free-press authoritarianism in the West as an "early stage" or tomorrow's problem.

[shagmin]

Chelsea Manning may be a better comparison since the US actually sentenced her, but even then that was about a leak with classified information rather than just punishing the press for being critical of the government. And she was arrested and served time (7 years?) and then got out, while coming out as transgendered (imagine going through that in Russian prison). It's not ideal, but it could be taken as an example of how much better it is in the US also.

[ashwagary]

Whistleblowers are not safe anymore, government abuse is being protected.

[smegger001]

Anymore? when were they ever safe? When has anyone in a position of power ever paid more than lip service to protecting whistle blower

[ComradePhil]

The facts that whistleblowers are as well-known as they are, shows that whistleblowers are safer than they have ever been in history.

[ashwagary]

This statement is fair but it only somewhat applies to a few famous whistleblowers.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-sup...

> In 2010, Assange gained unauthorized access to a government computer system of a NATO country. In 2012, Assange communicated directly with a leader of the hacking group LulzSec (who by then was cooperating with the FBI), and provided a list of targets for LulzSec to hack.

> Assange conspired with Army Intelligence Analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password hash to a classified U.S. Department of Defense computer.

If this is true then he is not a journalist.

[labawi]

If that is the height of his crimes, then it's no comparison to the extent US (or whomever) went to frame him for: sexual assault (coerced charges), fabricated hacking conspiracy (from a protected pedofile at that), or just about anything.

Note that even in the quoted allegations he pretty much didn't actually even do much at all. I don't know Assange, but I don't have doubts about who to side with.

[csee]

There's no equivalence here. Russia has assassinated about 50 journalists under Putin and imprisoned/beaten many more. They have a very tight stranglehold on press freedom.

But yes, we need to take it extremely seriously in the West and fight against any and all encroachments so that we don't slide further towards authoritarianism. Recent trends have been concerning.

[MemesAndBooze]

Do you have a list of the names of those 50 killed?

[goodoldneon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...

[bastardoperator]

How are they treating him considering he's still in the UK?

[rovolo]

A difference is that Assange/Manning had to be spreading something true to be charged, whereas this targets anything "false".

[sonotathrowaway]

I wish people would stop trying to remake Assange into a journalist, he’s not, Pompeo was correct when he called Wikileaks an intelligence agency.

It’s especially sad trying to cite him in this context, as we already know that he censors and threatens whistleblowers who ask him to publish documents on Putin.

Coincidentally enough, he has signed a contract with Russian state tv for his own tv show. He’s also been confronted about these facts and doesn’t bother denying any of it.

[malfist]

Julian Assange isn't a journalist though. He was a contractor trusted with protected information which he then publicized. There's a big difference between a journalist finding and publishing information, and a mole in our government sharing our secrets with people.

And that's ignoring the whole rape thing with Assange.

[scatters]

You're confusing Snowden with Assange. (And probably forgetting the role of Manning.)

[ashwagary]

My understanding is the fake rape charges were dropped. I expect it could've been an attempt at character assassination by certain governments with a long history of this kind of attack.

[sonotathrowaway]

America should have just threatened to murder him like Putin did. Maybe then he would’ve worked for the US, instead of signing a tv deal with Putin.

[ashwagary]

Stealing 10 years of his life and freedom is basically slow murder and torture. Whataboutism is unwarranted, the US is overreaching.