I was examining El Pais in regards to the Julian Assange case and his founding of Wikileaks. This source, alike many others, does not portray a more in-depth explanation of the situation. It is very tough to make that argument in a seemingly black and white case. I wouldn’t even go as far as to say it is a two sided story as almost all of the information is against Julian Assange. El Pais suggests that Assange’s following and social support is not nearly what it once was a few years back. This article in particular goes into depth of the court case against Assange and highlighted certain facts from the lawyers such as the prosecutor speaking about his leaked information reaching terrorist organizations. There is a very clear bias for the United States government, as there is no discussion of the lawyers supporting Assange, and all in favor of those opposing him. It began to go into background of his alleged sexual assault charges, but never goes more into depth than to suggest that he was accused. The framing done by this author strongly suggests a bias against Assange, as there is little to no supporting info in his favor. There is a brief area in this article which speaks of those who have stuck by his side, and it only mentions him asking them not trying to scream during his trial.
El Pais has a few other articles that have a bit of diverse views, but the overwhelming majority of the information coming from this source is similar in the support of the United States government rather than to support Julian Assange.
While this is interesting in its own, it brings on a greater debate of the media and their representation of free speech. The media, at least as I have discovered in this case, has not rushed to support Julian Assange. Their position is purely that he has violated the law of the United States and even said, “They did not care whether or not a violation of rights occurred. They did not care about everything. They only cared that it was clear that US law had been ignored. The problem is that someone who is neither American nor was accused the direct source of the leak.” This shows the essence of the problem. The world, and the media as a whole is more concerned with the law rather than the protection and human rights of the people of whom they are supposed to protect. Nowhere in this article does it mention the rights of the people of the United States, nor other countries in which sensitive data was leaked. Instead, it is only concerned with covering its own back and and protecting the information of the government.
After this information and my newfound research, I have taken a personal position. I believe that Assange is, in fact, guilty, and should be treated as such. Regardless of the rights of the people or free speech, Julian Assange has directly compromised the national security of the United States. There is an overarching need for security of the whole before individual rights of the many. While I am a firm believer in individual rights, I do not think that they should override the security of our nation or the protection of its people. This is very similar to the debate of cybersecurity, privacy versus security. I similarly stand in the position of security, as I think that the whole should matter more than the individual.
As we look forward from this event, I believe that it has strongly discouraged the concept of revolutionary free speech. After this extreme reaction towards Julian Assange, this clearly shows the position of the United States government in opposition to free speech. While they are not directly opposing free speech, they are opposed to the theory of releasing information that they do not think is acceptable. It was quite interesting to see the reactions of the government and the extreme actions they are looking to take on an individual who is not even a citizen of their country. Moving forward from this, I believe that people will be much more cautious before undergoing an action like this due to the extreme punishment Julian Assange is now facing.
Miguel, Rafa de. “La Acusación Contra Assange Insiste En Que Wikileaks Puso En Peligro La Vida De Informantes.” EL PAÍS. Ediciones EL PAÍS S.L., February 24, 2020. https://elpais.com/internacional/2020/02/24/actualidad/1582525867_786691.html.
Auston Locke's Blog 