“There’s many ways to assassinate a journalist”: Journalists reflect on Assange’s fifth year in Belmarsh Prison

On April 11, 2024, DRAD Policy Director Chip Gibbons joined Stefania Maurizi, Abby Martin, and Chris Hedges to mark five years of Julian Assange’s detention in Belmarsh Prison in the UK. On the grim anniversary, the panel of journalists reflected on how WikiLeaks transformed journalism in some of the darkest periods of silence enforced through government secrecy. 

DRAD Policy Director Chip Gibbons spoke on the ramifications of Assange’s prosecution under the Espionage Act for the future of national security journalism in the United States:

“Not only are they trying to set a precedent that would be the death knell of national security journalism – [they’re arguing that] publishing itself is a crime. They’re equating bold journalism with criminal conspiracy. The conspiracy that WikiLeaks is accused of is a conspiracy to commit journalism.”

Stefania Maurizi, who reported on the trove of WikiLeaks documents extensively, discussed the value of the Afghanistan war logs:

“For the first time since the Pentagon Papers 39 years before, we could see what the propaganda machine was telling us about these wars… We could compare what they were telling us and what was happening in the war theater, [in the words of] US soldiers. We could discover secret units, secret special forces and never been seen before, like the task force 373. They were this special task force assigned to kill Taliban leadership. And they had no idea what they were killing, they were killing randomly in the night, they were killing children, when they thought they were actually Taliban leaders.” 

Chris Hedges also covered foreign wars and experienced the wall of secrecy first hand. When WikiLeaks published the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, journalists immediately knew the value of the information. Hedges explained:

“I covered the war in El Salvador for five years. It’s only years later that we find out vital information about what happened. As relentless as we were, as reporters, so much is covered up… So much is hidden. In real time, we were given this body of information, which is important, because then you can make judgments about what’s happening because you have the truth.” 

Assange is in poor health, and at the five year mark in Belmarsh prison, many people following the case believe there is a risk Assange will die in prison. Assange’s seven year refuge trapped within embassy walls, followed by five years of imprisonment, has already exacted a heavy price, even before prosecution proceeds in the United States. Abby Martin contextualized the persecution of Assange within the broader landscape of global assaults on journalism. She reflected:

“As the war in Gaza rages on with full US backing, I think it’s important to take stock on the ways that journalism has been criminalized and attacked. Over 100 media professionals and journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in the last six months. And I think we’re reminded of how little sanctity there is for the profession and Palestine. But as we know, there’s many ways to assassinate a journalist. In places like the West in the US and the UK, journalism that doesn’t kowtow to power and that runs contrary state narratives is ridiculed and diminished, and, in the case of Julian Assange, criminalized to the fullest extent of the law.”

Watch the full panel here.