Julian Assange arrest: A direct assault on press freedom

The charges just boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identify of that source. Journalists around the world should be deeply troubled by these unprecedented criminal charges.

Several prominent groups that advocate for the press say they are very concerned about the implications of Thursday's charges, even though, the indictment does not explicitly charge Assange for publication."

The persecution of those who provide or publish information of public interest comes at the expense of the investigative journalism that allows a democracy to thrive.

The U.S. government indictment of Julian Assange is an aggressive and potentially chilling legal document for journalists in the U.S. and abroad.

Prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public's interest.

I worry that Assange will not be able to present a full defense should he be successfully extradited to the United States, as there may be cases where serious journalists should publish classified documents however they are obtained.

The United Nations had formally ruled Assange's "detention to be arbitrary, a violation of human rights.

This man is a son, a father, a brother. He has won dozens of journalism awards. He's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010. Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanise, delegitimize and imprison him.

I was "deeply shocked" by the arrest, asserting that "human rights, and especially freedom of expression, are under attack once again in Europe.

I am in shock. How could you Equador? (Because he exposed you.). How could you UK? Of course–you are America's b**** and you need a diversion from your idiotic Brexit bullshit. And the USA? This toxic coward of a president. He needs to rally his base? You are selfish and cruel. You have taken the entire world backwards

Yes, all three countries are devils and liars and thieves.

I do think it's ironic that he may be the only foreigner that this administration would welcome to the US.

I think what's happening here is, unfortunately, it is some form of retaliation coming from the government saying, 'Hey, this is what happens when you release information that we don't want you to release (Like America usually tells about countries such as Vietnam, China or Myanmar).

This is such a dangerous and slippery slope, not only for journalists, not only for those in the media, but also for every American that our government can and has the power to kind of lay down the hammer to say, 'Be careful, be quiet and fall in line, otherwise we have the means to come after you.' "

Any prosecution by the United States of Assange for Wikileaks’ publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations.

We strongly condemn the detention of Julian Assange and the violation of freedom of expression. Our solidarity is with this brother who is persecuted by the government for revealing its human rights violations, murders of civilians and diplomatic espionage.

The indictment threatens many common journalist-source practices: protecting source anonymity, using an encrypted messenger, requesting docs.

Arresting Julian Assange for publishing is an attack on fundamental press freedom that democracy depends on. Like Chelsea Manning, US empire wants to imprison him for the "crime" of revealing what our government is doing. All who support democracy must resist!