Julian Assange's Innocence

A whistleblower is anybody who reveals illegal or unethical information or activities that occur within a company or government, and they have been around for quite some time now. The United States government has had a long history of disliking whistleblowers and have dealt with them through many forms of unfair punishment, mainly because they don’t appreciate when the truth is revealed to the public. In some cases, articles are written about these whistleblowers being heroes, but many others deem them as traitors. Recently, a whistleblower case regarding a journalist and editor from Australia named Julian Assange has been up for strong debate. In 2006, Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks, a website that was created with the purpose of gathering and sharing confidential information to the public. In 2010, WiKiLeaks came to international attention when they published United States documents about the war in Iraq. In 2012, Sweden had tried to charge Assange with rape, so he immediately sought refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Assange was also afraid that the United States would try to put him in jail. Little did he know, the U.S. government was spying on him during his time at the embassy and had even placed cameras and microphones in his bathroom. Seven years passed and Assange was still in hiding at the Ecuadorian embassy. That is until he was arrested for skipping bail and is now currently being held in a British maximum-security prison.

There has been a rising concern that this punishment is too extreme for Assange’s whistleblowing acts and personally I agree. The prison holds some of the most dangerous and ruthless criminals. He has little to no contact with anyone and is forcefully confined for 23 hours a day. Doctors have even begun to worry about Assange’s health, saying he is close to death. In my opinion, Julian Assange is a victim and is going through an ugly form of torture for just doing his job and speaking the truth. The United States government has no right to put Assange through such harsh treatment when he hasn’t even been charged with anything. I think Assange’s whistleblowing acts was him being ethical and don’t understand why the first amendment doesn’t protect him against this. As a U.S. citizen, I feel that I have the right to know when illegal or unjust activities are occurring and Assange helped people discover the truth and allowed the world to focus on important issues. These days, being active in politics is important because it is how we fight for what we want and have a voice and freedom of speech. I am baffled by the fact that whistleblowers release stories about wrongdoings, corruption, and crime but the people who do all of those injustices are given zero punishment while the journalists/whistleblowers get punished. How do the U.S. laws still apply to Assange if he wasn’t even an American citizen? It isn’t fair that the U.S. government had enough power to reach into another country, pull him out and place him in prison. They interfered with another country’s government.

Julian Assange arrested at Ecuadorian embassy:https://youtu.be/8oqJiNzJQ_E