In June 1971 the Supreme Court rejected attempts by the US government to prevent The Washington Post and The New York Times publishing the Pentagon Papers, a report on how the US had gone to war in Vietnam. That decision was based on the Bill of Rights guarantee of a free press. The Supreme Court judges summed up their finding by stating that the government had failed to meet its "heavy burden" of justifying restraint orders against the press as required by the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
Daniel Ellsberg, a former military analyst with the CIA-linked Rand Corporation, was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a maximum sentence of 115 years, for releasing the papers. The ex-editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger – who Lefty thought he may be gets an honourable mention here as he also supported Snowden and Assange - described Ellsberg as "the grandfather of whistleblowers", and he was certainly considered to be a hero for exposing truths about the Vietnam War that the US Establishment did not want people to know about.
We also consider whistleblower Edward Snowden to be a hero of free speech. Snowden leaked classified information from the American National Security Agency, revealing State-run global surveillance programs that raised serious concerns about individual privacy. He did this in an effort "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them". As Rusbridger has said, Snowden revealed "how security agencies have powers that make Orwell’s 1984 read like a fairy tale." Needless to say he was promptly charged with of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and theft of government property, and was forced to flee the US, ultimately seeking political asylum in Russia.
And we also consider Julian Assange to be a hero of free speech, worthy of our support. We might not like him (or Ellsberg or Snowden) personally, or agree with his politics or even his motives, but nevertheless we should all approve of what he did to expose war crimes committed by the US in Iran and Iraq.
But his release, after 12 years of various forms of imprisonment, is not all good news. To gain his freedom Assange had to plead guilty to a charge of Conspiracy to Receive National Defense Information, brought under the 1917 Espionage Act. The other 17 charges against him were dropped. This sets a very unfortunate precedent, and it can be argued that the US Establishment has won. No one, not even the US government, really thinks that what Assange did was espionage. No, the real purpose of Assange's persecution was to serve a warning to journalists that their protections under the First Amendment are very flimsy and they had, therefore, better toe the Government line. Judging by the gutlessness of most modern MSM journalists, it seems to have worked.
Nobody can reasonably criticise Assange for agreeing to plead guilty in exchange for his freedom. Almost all of us would have done the same. But it's a pity that it did not go to court as, if Assange had received a fair trial - and that is a very big if - he would almost certainly have been acquitted. But like anyone the Establishment sets its face against, from Trump to Tommy Robinson, Assange has been the subject of a venomous smear campaign, and like Trump a trial would probably have been highly politicised and biased against him.
It has been frequently argues that the press freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment does not apply to Assange, as he is not a journalist. But as the Amendment was enacted in 1791 when there were no journalists in today's sense, it seems to me that is a poor argument. Establishment mouthpieces have argued that his actions endangered American troops and their allies in Iraq, but this is mere assertion, offered without proof, but even if it had a sliver of truth, is that more important than allowing people to know what government is doing in their name? We don't think so. For government to hide the truth, it should have to clear an evidential hurdle set as high as is reasonably possible, with a very heavy burden of proof set on its shoulders.
Throughout the West, the mainstream media is now part of the woke globalist cabal, generally toeing the Establishment's favoured line and putting out endless streams of lies and misinformation. Lying is now the government's default mode - and we need more free speech heroes like Ellsberg, Snowdon and Assange.