With Extradition Imminent, the Implications of Assange’s Persecution for Journalism and Democracy

Due to recent claims made by WikiLeaks on Twitter that Julian Assange will be forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London in a matter of “hours or days,” MintPress News has brings you this editorial first published last June by journalist Whitney Webb in order to again highlight the dangerous precedent for journalism, free speech and much more the end of Assange’s asylum — and his likely extradition to the United States — would set.

LONDON  (Opinion) – Today marks the sixth anniversary of Julian Assange’s ascent to the position of the world’s most well-known political refugee after daring to be the public face of the ground-breaking transparency organization WikiLeaks. Arbitrarily detained in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for more than half a decade, Assange’s precarious situation – a product of the U.S. and U.K. governments’ efforts to destroy and silence him forever – threatens to devolve into tragedy.