Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been charged by the US Justice Department on 17 new counts of illegally obtaining and publishing classified information, marking a drastic escalation in the Australian‘s legal strife.
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The New York Times reports that Assange was indicted on the charges under the Espionage Act in relation to Wikileak’s operations in 2010, when the whistleblowing organisation dumped stacks of classified intel obtained by former US Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning.
That information included the so-called ‘Collateral Murder‘ video showing an accidental US airstrike on unarmed Reuters journalists, among other damaging files which had been ruled highly confidential by US officials.
ABC reports that prosecutors claim Assange “risked serious harm” to the United States by releasing the files, adding that Assange put individuals at risk by not stripping their names from the files before they were shared by Wikileaks.
The case also represents a test to the US’ First Amendment rights, which mandate freedom of speech. Assange has long claimed to be a journalist, but Assistant Attorney General John Demers is quoted as saying no real journalist would “purposely publish the names of individuals he or she knew to be confidential sources, exposing them to the gravest of dangers.”
Here’s how the Times puts it:
Though he is not a conventional journalist, much of what Mr. Assange does at WikiLeaks is difficult to distinguish in a legally meaningful way from what traditional news organizations like The New York Times do: seek and publish information that officials want to be secret, including classified national security matters, and take steps to protect the confidentiality of sources.
Assange is currently fighting extradition in London after he was booted from the seven-year-long protection of the Ecuadorian embassy last month.
He is currently serving a 50-week jail sentence in the UK for jumping bail in relation to a 2012 rape case levelled against him.
