“I plead guilty to journalism”
– Julian Assange
Julian Assange’s 14-year global campaign for freedom came to an end on June 25 2024 after he accepted a guilty plea of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. documents.
Assange launched WikiLeaks in 2006 and used his platform to expose war crimes that would have otherwise remained concealed. In our campaign for his release, Amnesty International warned of the ‘chilling effect’ his persecution had on the rights of journalists and whistleblowers to expose corruption, crime and abuses of power and its subsequent threats to the transparency, accountability and strength of our governance.
Just weeks after his release, Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton told us, “It has been more than a fortnight since Julian finally arrived back in Australia. He’s still adjusting. Getting to spend time with family. Looking out to the horizon. To hear Kookaburras at dawn.”
“He’s still adjusting. Getting to spend time with family. Looking out to the horizon. To hear Kookaburras at dawn.”
– Gabriel Shipton, Julian Assange’s brother
“When people said this couldn’t be done, we proved them wrong. When people said the odds were against us, we kept working together and, in the process, stood powerfully against the threats of Presidents and Governments,”
“As a family, we’re also realistic that ahead lies a challenging period of adjustment after what has been a deeply traumatising experience” said Shipton.
Assange made his first public appearance in October, telling the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that he had chosen “freedom over unrealisable justice”.
“I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism,”
“I pled guilty to seeking information from a source. I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source and I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was. I did not plead guilty to anything else…The criminalisation of news-gathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere,” Assange said.
After 14 years away from his former life in Australia, his wife Stella told the media that Julian plans to swim in the ocean every day, sleep in a real bed, taste real food, teach his children how to catch crabs, and simply “enjoy freedom”.
She said he needed to adjust to normal life and enjoy family time: “It’s all we’d been wishing for so many years, it’s wonderful.”
And whilst admitting that his first public address was exhausting, she hoped it would “introduce safeguards so that what happened to Julian [could] never happen again to another journalist”.
“Throughout the years of Julian’s imprisonment and persecution, an incredible movement has been formed. People from all walks of life from around the world who support not just Julian…but what Julian stands for: truth and justice.”
– Stella Assange
Jennifer Robinson, a human rights lawyer, barrister, and long-standing member of the legal team defending Julian Assange, told us that Amnesty’s campaign, which included all 125,000 of you in Australia, has had a ‘huge impact’. Together, in the relentless fight for Julian’s freedom, we demonstrated that people power really does work.
Now, work must be done to uphold freedom of expression and to unwind the impact of the ‘chilling effect’ that Julian Assange’s treatment has had on media freedom worldwide. The fight for global media freedom continues.
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people who take injustice personally. We are campaigning for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all – and we can only do it with your support.
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