Commentary about Julian Assange

In 1997, Assange created the deniable encryption program Rubberhose as a tool for human rights workers who needed to protect sensitive data in the field.

[14] Science-fiction writer Bruce Sterling was impressed with the program and wrote that he thought Assange knew he would attract the attention of the authorities and had "figured out that the cops would beat his password out of him, and he needed some code-based way to finesse his own human frailty".

[15] In 2010 Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg said that Assange was a kindred spirit who disclosed information "on a scale that might really make a difference"[1] and "has shown much better judgment with respect to what he has revealed than the people who kept those items secret inside the government.

[22][23] In December 2010 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who was then the President of Brazil, said "They have arrested him and I don't hear so much as a single protest for freedom of expression".

[27] American politicians Mitch McConnell, Newt Gingrich, and Sarah Palin each either referred to Assange as "a high-tech terrorist" or suggested that through publishing US diplomatic traffic he was engaged in terrorism.

[37][38] Italian Rolling Stone magazine called Assange "the person who best embodied a rock'n'roll behaviour" during 2010, describing him a cross between a James Bond villain, a Marvel superhero and a character from The Matrix films.

[41] In September 2011, the Guardian, New York Times, El Pais, Der Spiegel, and Le Monde made a joint statement that they condemned and deplored the decision by Julian Assange to publish the unredacted state department cables and WikiLeaks insiders including Birgitta Jonsdottir criticised Assange's handling of the moral issue of the Afghan War Diary and "dictatorial tendencies" inside WikiLeaks.

[41][6] The New York Times reporters "came to think of Assange as smart and well-educated, extremely adept technologically, but arrogant, thin-skinned, conspiratorial and oddly credulous.

"[42] Writing in the MIT Technology Review, Jason Pontin predicted in early 2011 that "Assange has declared himself the state’s enemy and he will, in all likelihood, be comprehensively destroyed.

[15] In November 2011 Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club, said he supported Assange "in terms of the manner in which he is delivering us an opportunity to talk about really important stuff.

Smith told the press it was not about whether Assange was right or wrong for what he had done with WikiLeaks, it was about "standing up to the bully" and "whether our country, in these historic times, really was the tolerant, independent, and open place I had been brought up to believe it was and feel that it needs to be".

The cables also revealed that the embassy saw complaints about threats to Assange as part of a media campaign "to set the scene for a possible political exception to extradition".

[45] In April 2012, interviewed on Assange's television show World Tomorrow, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa praised WikiLeaks and told his host "Cheer up!

[49][50] In April 2013, filmmaker Oliver Stone stated that "Julian Assange did much for free speech and is now being victimised by the abusers of that concept.

[54][55][56] In November 2014, Spanish Podemos party leader Pablo Iglesias also gave his support to Assange, calling him an activist and a journalist and criticising his persecution.

[59] In October 2016 James Ball who had previously worked with Assange, wrote that he had a score to settle with Hillary Clinton and wanted to reassert himself on the world stage, but that he wouldn't knowingly have been a tool of the Russian state.

[62] In 2017 Barrett Brown said that Assange had acted "as a covert political operative" in the 2016 US election, thus betraying WikiLeaks' focus on exposing "corporate and government wrongdoing".

Within this worldview, crypto defends privacy for the weak, thereby upholding the right to communicate, and promotes transparency for the powerful, thereby limiting the harm caused by bad governance".

[85] In his 2022 book The Trial of Julian Assange: a Story of Persecution, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Nils Melzer, wrote that Assange's treatment by the United States, Great Britain, Sweden, and Ecuador "exposes a fundamental systemic failure that severely undermines the integrity of our democratic, rule-of-law institutions.".

"[9] While there was support from some American journalism institutions,[87][88] as well as from bi-partisan politicians,[89] for Assange's arrest and indictment, several non-government organisations for press freedom condemned it and individuals, journalists, and activists have opposed his extradition.

"[87][91] Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, also warned, "The only thing standing between an Assange prosecution and a major threat to global media freedom is Britain.

"[93] In March 2020 the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute, IBAHRI, condemned the mistreatment of Assange in the extradition trial.

[94] In September 2020, an open letter in support of Assange was sent to Boris Johnson with the signatures of the Presidents of Argentina and Venezuela and approximately 160 other politicians.