Tuesday’s release of Julian Assange from 14 years of confinement is to be celebrated on humanitarian grounds. But as we celebrate his return to his wife and children, let us take this moment to examine how our nation, once the global champion of press freedom, came to persecute this brave journalist. There is a reason why the Founding Fathers enshrined freedom of the press in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is crucial for democracy to function. Democracy requires transparency.
President John F. Kennedy understood well that secrecy is inimical to democracy. In his address to the American Newspaper Publishers in 1961, he stated, 'The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.
In other words, Julian Assange was crushed as a warning to journalists everywhere. He spent 14 years in confinement, including five years in Britain’s harsh Belmarsh prison and seven years trapped in the Ecuadorian Embassy before that. Yet, until the plea bargain that got him released on Tuesday, the only crime for which he was convicted was jumping bail, a misdemeanor charge.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an independent candidate for president of the United States.