Julian Assange — Expendable Martyr
Published in Financial Times
(Germany) on 8 December 2010
by (link to original)
It’s axiomatic that justice is blind. Since Tuesday, we now know that she also has absolutely no sense of timing. Arresting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Precisely at the peak of the smear campaign against Assange for revealing classified American documents, the British police took him into custody — not for making classified information public, but for alleged rape.
That begs the question whether the intent is to really investigate the rape allegation, as is legally required, or whether it is merely to get rid of a man many American politicians have come to consider public enemy number one. That, despite the fact that no one can explain what crime Assange is supposed to have committed by releasing the diplomatic documents; nor can anyone explain why their publication by WikiLeaks is a crime but their publication by the New York Times is not.
Assange’s newly found martyr status can only further tarnish America’s already damaged public image. It’s also highly doubtful that getting rid of Assange will also get rid of WikiLeaks, as much as the Americans would like that to be the case. A platform like WikiLeaks may have a better chance of survival without a front man who is just as divisive as he is dazzling and whose leadership style had already alienated several of his team members.
In the name of freedom of expression, it is desirable that WikiLeaks survives these attacks — or that the platform is taken over by a worthy successor willing to accept the challenge of publicizing documents that expose corruption and the abuse of power.
Precisely at the peak of the smear campaign against Assange for revealing classified American documents, the British police took him into custody — not for making classified information public, but for alleged rape.
That begs the question whether the intent is to really investigate the rape allegation, as is legally required, or whether it is merely to get rid of a man many American politicians have come to consider public enemy number one. That, despite the fact that no one can explain what crime Assange is supposed to have committed by releasing the diplomatic documents; nor can anyone explain why their publication by WikiLeaks is a crime but their publication by the New York Times is not.
Assange’s newly found martyr status can only further tarnish America’s already damaged public image. It’s also highly doubtful that getting rid of Assange will also get rid of WikiLeaks, as much as the Americans would like that to be the case. A platform like WikiLeaks may have a better chance of survival without a front man who is just as divisive as he is dazzling and whose leadership style had already alienated several of his team members.
In the name of freedom of expression, it is desirable that WikiLeaks survives these attacks — or that the platform is taken over by a worthy successor willing to accept the challenge of publicizing documents that expose corruption and the abuse of power.