Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks and leaker of government secrets, has been in the news again recently as he was finally released from detention in the UK, avoided prison in the USA, and allowed to travel home to Australia!
Reading about Assange made me think in general about whistleblowers. What is a whistleblower? Is Julian Assange actually a whistleblower, or is he something different? And are people who reveal secret information heroes or villains?
Letโs discuss this, and learn some very useful legal vocabulary, in todayโs episode of Thinking in English!
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Vocabulary
- Extradition (noun): The process of sending someone from one country to another to face criminal charges.
- The extradition of Julian Assange from the UK to the US has been a controversial topic.
- Classified (adjective): Officially secret and accessible only to authorized people.
- The classified documents revealed sensitive military information.
- To accuse (verb): To charge someone with an offense or crime.
- Julian Assange is accused of disclosing military secrets.
- Whistleblower (noun): A person who exposes information or activity within an organization that they believe to be illegal, unethical, or not correct.
- Edward Snowden is a well-known whistleblower who exposed NSA’s mass surveillance programs.
- Hacking (noun): The act of gaining unauthorized access to data in a system or computer.
- Assange’s early activities involved hacking into various computer systems.
- To leak (verb): To intentionally disclose confidential information to the public.
- WikiLeaks aims to leak documents that governments and corporations want to keep secret.
- To expose (verb): To reveal or make something known that was previously hidden or secret.
- WikiLeaks has exposed numerous government and corporate misdeeds.
Introduction
Julian Assange, the founder of infamous website WikiLeaks, has been in the middle of legal cases for the past decade.
For years, he faced extradition to the US and was accused of disclosing military secrets. Extradition meant that he would be sent from the UK (where he was detained) to the US in order to face a criminal trial.
The major news story in June was that Assange finally reached an agreement with the USA that allowed him to avoid extradition and return to Australia.
Weโll talk more about what Assange did in a few minutes, but he is a very divisive figure. He revealed thousands of secret documents that revealed the truth about countries actions during wars and other situations.
To some people he is a hero who deserves to be applauded for revealing the truth. To others he is a villain, a traitor, who revealed secrets and put people in danger.
Reading about Assange in the news recently has made me think about this issue. Are people who learn secrets that could change the way people think about real life situations, good or bad?
Should whistleblowers, people who report on such information, be applauded?
And how about Julian Assange? Is he actually a whistleblower? Is he a hero or villain?
Letโs talk about this in more detail. First, who is Julian Assange?
Who is Julian Assange?
Julian Assange is an Australian publisher and activist best known as the founder of WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks is a non-profit organisation that publishes classified, censored, and restricted information.
Julian Assange was born in Queensland, Australia. As a child he showed a natural ability with computers and a talent for hacking. In the late 1980s, Assange became known for his hacking activities, which led to legal issues and a conviction for hacking in 1995. He was fined, but after signing an official promise he would not hack again he avoided prison.
Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006. The website had the goal of promoting global transparency. It wanted to reveal information that would usually be kept secret by governments and international organisation, and it did this by publishing classified and sensitive documents from anonymous sources.
Wikileaks claims to have published over 100 million documents since it was founded in 2006, many of these documents related to war and government corruption.
Some of the major releases on WikiLeaks include a 2010 video that showed a U.S. military helicopter attack in Baghdad, Iraq, killing civilians and journalists.
2010 was a key year in WikiLeaks history. That year, they also released tens of thousands of classified U.S. military documents about the war in Afghanistan, published almost 400,000 military field reports from the Iraq War, revealing civilian deaths and torture, and released a collection of U.S. diplomatic cables.
In 2016, they famously released emails from Hilary Clintonโs election campaign, revealing comments she made about her rivals.
Assange played a key role as the founder of WikiLeaks and the person in charge of the publishing platform. His supporters argue that he has played a crucial role in exposing government and corporate misconduct and promoted greater transparency and accountability.
His critics argue that by releasing documents with no reservations or redaction, Assange has endangered lives and compromised national security.
Assange is also a very controversial figure.
In 2010, Assange faced allegations of sexual misconduct in Sweden, which he denied. These charges led to a long legal battle over extradition.
To avoid extradition to Sweden (and potentially to the U.S.), Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012, where he remained for almost seven years.
In April 2019, Assange was arrested by British authorities after Ecuador revoked his asylum. He then faced extradition proceedings to the U.S., where he was charged under the Espionage Act for publishing classified military and diplomatic documents.
After years of legal battles and court cases, Assange eventually reached an agreement to end his extradition to the US in June this year.
This was a surprise to most people. News broke that Assange had reached a plea agreement (in which he plead guilty to one crime in the USA) but was not punished and free to return to the USA.
Assange was so suspicious of the US government that he refused to travel to the mainland, instead paying for a private flight to Saipan in Asia (a US territory) to appear in court.
After over a decade in detention in the UK, Assange is now free in Australia and he will no longer be punished for whistleblowing.
What is a Whistleblower?
That last word, whistleblowing, is an important one. This is because whistleblowing, or being a whistleblower, is slightly different to what Assange was accused of doing.
A whistleblower is a person who exposes information or activity within an organization that they believe to be illegal, unethical, or not correct.
The person could reveal corruption, fraud, safety violations, environmental damage, or other forms of wrongdoing. A whistleblower may report their concerns internally within the organization or externally to regulators, the police, or the media.
Whistleblowers typically have access to privileged information because of their position within an organisation. They might be an employee of a company committing environmental crimes, or a lawyer working for a corrupt politician.
A whistleblowerโs motive is usually to stop a wrongdoing or bring attention to harmful practices, and they often face significant risks. These risks could be legal, financial, professional, or even criminal!
Some notable examples of whistleblowers include Edward Snowden who exposed the NSAโs mass surveillance programmes in the USA; Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers, revealing government deception during the Vietnam War; and Erin Brockovich who brought to light water contamination by Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
Many countries have laws that protect whistleblowers, but perhaps not when they leak national secrets.
Does Julian Assange meet the defintion of being a whistleblower?
Is Julian Assange a Whistleblower?
While he is often associated with whistleblowing due to his role in publishing classified and sensitive information, whether he is a whistleblower himself is a subject of debate.
On the one hand, Assange created and operated WikiLeaks as a platform for whistleblowers to anonymously submit documents exposing government and business misconduct. And WikiLeaks has published a lot of significant information.
By making these documents public, Assange played a direct role in exposing illegal activities.
On the other hand, Assange did not personally acquire the leaked information. Instead, he published information provided by others, such as Chelsea Manning. Traditional whistleblowers typically have insider access and leak the information from within.
Whistleblowers often go through legal channels or try to minimise harm, whereas Assangeโs approach has been seen as more confrontational.
Many would argue that while he is a key figure in the whistleblowing community, Assange is not a whistleblower in the conventional sense.
Are Whistleblowers Heroes or Villains?
I want to talk about whether Assange is a criminal who should have been extradited to the US and faced greater punishments, or a hero who deserved protection in a few minutes.
First, I want to talk about whistleblowers in general.
Many people see whistleblowers as heroic figures.
They play a crucial role in exposing corruption, fraud, and wrongdoing. They act in the public interest by exposing information that would otherwise remain hidden. Daniel Ellsberg’s release of the Pentagon Papers exposed government deception during the Vietnam War, something the US government would have never revealed publicly.
Whistleblowers hold powerful entities accountable for their actions. Erin Brockovich uncovered water contamination by Pacific Gas and Electric Company, leading to a $333 million settlement and improved environmental regulations.
Whistleblowers have a moral duty to speak out against wrongdoing. Sherron Watkins’ warnings about accounting irregularities at Enron helped uncover one of the largest corporate frauds in history, protecting investors and employees.
Others see whistleblowers, especially those revealing government secrets, as irresponsible and reckless.
Often a whistleblower, like Edward Snowdon or Chelsea Manning, is in a position of trust. They have been given access to classified information, and by revealing that information they have broken the agreements they signed and potentially endangered people in real life.
In the case against Assange, the US argued that the release of documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan put American soldiers in direct danger. The releases revealed secret information and also stirred up anger against American forces.
There is also an ethical question around publicly publishing sensitive materials. It is actually one of the difficult questions that governments and leaders need to deal with every day โ how much truth you need to reveal to the public. The government keeps secretsโฆ and this isnโt always a bad thing. Revealing documents without editing or considering the content first, could be causing more harm than good.
Overall, I personally would argue that whistleblowers are important. I think people have a duty to do what is right, and sometimes that involves reporting crime and misconduct that is taking place in secret.
What About Julian Assange?
But what about Julian Assange? Is he a hero or a villain? Should he have been extradited to the USA to face criminal charges?
As always, Iโll address both sides of this debate, starting with arguments against his extradition.
Many people argued that extraditing Assange would have set a dangerous precedent or message for journalists worldwide. Journalists gather information, and report important stories every day. Extraditing Assange could have potentially made these activities that involve publishing classified information a riskier action.
There are also many examples of information being leaked in the past, which is now seen as a good thing, a thing that has been crucial for public knowledge.
The prosecution of Assange could have been viewed as a threat to free speech and the publicโs right to know about government actions.
Assange wanted to argue that his actions, releasing and publishing documents, were in the public interest. The problem, however, is that this cannot be used in a legal argument against the crime Assange is accused of in the United States.
On the other hand, there are some strong arguments that Assange is not a whistleblower, he is a hacker, and had broken laws. If he had broken laws, some believe he should have be punished.
Assange technically plead guilty as part of his plea bargain that freed him. Of course, his guilty plea was primarily to give him his freedom.
Assange was accused of hacking into Pentagon computers, a clear violation of the law, and should face legal consequences for this act.
Assangeโs actions went beyond traditional journalism in many ways. He was directly involved in hacking efforts. This makes him different from a legitimate journalist.
Other arguments for extraditing Assange to the US included national security (Assangeโs actions put the US and other countries in danger).
Moreover, the charges in the US had been carefully chosen to focus specifically on hacking and espionage, rather than infringing on journalist and press freedom.
Assange is a controversial figure. Did he deserve to be punished for publishing documents? I donโt personally think so.
Did he deserve to be punished for illegally obtaining documents and encouraging other people to hack computers for him? Maybe, as that is a crime.
Assange has now been freed and plead guilty, so we will never know what would have happened if he had eventually been extradited to the US!
Final Thought
Julian Assangeโs extradition to the USA, and his reputation in general, is a complex and contentious topic. It involves debates around transparency, national security, and freedom of speech.
Assange founded WikiLeaks, a platform that has revealed significant information about governments, businesses, and organsiations. However, his methods and the risks caused by his leaked information are controversial.
Whether viewed as a hero advocating for the public’s right to know or a villain compromising security, Assange is now a free man again!
What do you think? Is Assange a hero or a villain? How about whistleblowers in general?
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