Assange, in first speech since release, says he was jailed for journalism

BRUSSELS — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told a rights group Tuesday that his imprisonment had set a “dangerous precedent” for arresting journalists and criminalising activities that were essential to the work of investigative journalists — his first public statement since being released from a British prison in June.
“I want to be totally clear: I am not free today because the system worked,” he said as he gave evidence to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights at the Council of Europe, a rights organisation in Strasbourg, France. “I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism.”
Assange, 53, has been a polarising figure since revealing state secrets in the 2010s — either hailed as a hero for publishing documents in the public interest and therefore deserving of the same First Amendment protections afforded to investigative journalists, or viewed as a criminal who put American national security at risk and aided Russian election interference.
In June, he agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material in a deal with American officials that secured his release from the British prison where he had spent the previous five years while fighting possible extradition to the United States.
“I was formally convicted by a foreign power for asking for, receiving and publishing truthful information about that power, while I was in Europe,” he said Tuesday, seated on a panel beside his wife, Stella Assange. “The fundamental issue is simple: Journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.”
The state secrets released by WikiLeaks involved material about US military activity in Afghanistan and Iraq, including civilian deaths and detainee abuse, and cables among American diplomats that revealed bargaining by diplomats, candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats. In 2016, WikiLeaks released a trove of thousands of emails that had been stolen from the Democratic National Committee, leading to disclosures that hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Until June, Assange had been held in Belmarsh, one of Britain’s highest-security prisons, in southeastern London. Had he not pleaded guilty, he could have faced a sentence of up to 170 years in a US federal prison.
Assange began his speech Tuesday by apologising if his words faltered or his presentation lacked polish. “Isolation has taken its toll, which I am trying to unwind and expressing myself in this setting is a challenge,” he said.

Before his time in prison, Assange had lived in exile for years in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. He sought asylum there in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on accusations of sexual assault.
Although Ecuador initially extended protection to Assange, over the years he became an unwelcome guest. The embassy expelled him in 2019, and police promptly arrested him for skipping bail. A short time later, the United States indicted him on several charges, including under the Espionage Act.
The indictment raised questions about whether the case could set a precedent for criminalising activities that were crucial to investigative journalists in the United States who write about national security matters. American officials at the time played down those concerns.
After the arrest in London, attempts to extradite Assange lingered in the courts. His lawyers and supporters said that his mental and physical health were deteriorating, and his avenues to appeal appeared to be drying up.
At the same time, diplomatic efforts to resolve the case continued behind the scenes, with the government of Assange’s native Australia calling for his release. The deal surrounding his guilty plea in June included the caveat that he be allowed to face court far from the US mainland.
He then travelled to Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Pacific, before returning to Australia, where he was reunited with his wife and two children.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.