Julian Assange’s Plea Deal Is Good News for Journalists
His case could have gone so much worse
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice and has been freed from London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison.
That news traveled swiftly through online news sources and garnered millions of celebratory likes, shares, and comments on social media sites on June 24, 2024.
To say that Assange’s imprisonment ended quickly would be inaccurate, as he’s been living in the Ecuadorian embassy, and then Belmarsh Prison, for the last twelve years.
But news of the deal that was agreed upon is arguably not only good news for Assange and his family; it’s also good news for journalists worldwide.
The specifics of the deal
There was also positive news in the Assange case a month ago, when it was announced that he’d been granted the right to appeal his extradition to the United States. At that time, the Department of Justice (DOJ) had been trying to charge him with 17 counts against the 1917 Espionage Act, for publishing national defense information that was provided to WikiLeaks.
In the end, Assange pleaded guilty to a charge of “conspiring unlawfully to obtain and disseminate classified…
