Free Flow of Information: The Censorship of Julian Assange

 

Julian Assange is a journalist and activist who founded WikiLeaks.  Wikileaks is non-profit that publishes new leaks and stories sent in by anonymous sources.  They are often publishing ground-breaking stories and things that you would not see in mainstream media.  Because of this, WikiLeaks has a target on their backs.  They are publishing stories that our government and other organizations do not want the public to know about.  

The United States knows that the government only gets their power from the governed.  Because of this they filter the things that we see and do not see.  This way the governed people are left in the dark and cannot protest what the government is doing if they do not know about it.  This is their way of making sure that they keep their own power and hide important information from the people.  This is a dangerous tactic that is being used to control the general population.  

On May 23rd, 2019, Julian Assange was charged with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 by the United States government after he and his company released confidential Democratic Party emails showing that the national party preferred Hilary Clinton over her competitor Bernie Sanders.  There was much criticism about this as many believed that it infringed upon their first amendment right which grants citizens freedom of speech.  The Espionage Act "prohibited obtaining information, recording pictures, or copying descriptions of any information relating to the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information may be used for the injury of the United States."  

The information that Julian Assange is sharing is only bringing to light what our government is really doing and sharing this with the people.  I do not think this should be a crime considering the U.S. citizens have a right to know how their money is being used by the government.  I think that the imprisonment of Julian Assange is wrong and that there should be more journalists like him who share necessary information with the people.  How are the people to decide that their government is still in check if they do not eve know what they're doing?  The answer is that they can't and this is why the government does their best to hide this information.