“I pled guilty to journalism,” said Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a powerful testimony this week, in his first public remarks since leaving prison.
“I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism,” said Assange before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, France. “I pled guilty to seeking information from a source. I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was. I did not plead guilty to anything else.”
PACE expressed strong disapproval for “the disproportionately harsh treatment” of Assange, and warned of the “dangerous chilling effect” his imprisonment has on the future of journalism and free speech. On October 2, 2024, the assembly designated Assange a “political prisoner” according to a definition it accepted in 2012.
The Assembly — comprised of 306 ministers from the Council of Europe’s 46 member countries — also called on the United States to properly investigate the alleged war crimes uncovered by Assange and Wikileaks, and to “urgently reform” the 1917 Espionage Act in order to protect whistleblowers disclosing information about human rights violations and other major crimes.
