The Editors Guild of India, founded in 1978 to protect press freedom, has called on the US government to drop all charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to ensure his release from jail and “uphold media freedom and the larger principles of democracy.”
In a statement, the guild said the US government has been leading harassment and intimidation campaigns, and should withdraw all cases against Assange “so that this travesty of liberties ends.”
This comes days after a UK court ruled that Assange should not be extradited to the US because he's considered a high suicide risk.
— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) January 6, 2021
The guild says Assange has been subjected to persecution and imprisonment “for doing his journalistic duty of bringing truth to power” and by harassing him, the US government had “made a mockery” of freedom of speech.
The guild also warned that if the charges under the espionage act of "publishing documents" against Assange were not dropped, “it would have implications on how governments all over the world, including India, perceive investigative and national security journalism."
In 2019, the US Justice Department charged the whistleblower on 17 counts, saying he unlawfully published the classified documents, which were obtained with the help of ex-Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
