Index calls on US Department of Justice to drop Julian Assange appeal
We join 23 press freedom, civil liberties, and human rights organisations in call to drop case against WikiLeaks founder
08 Feb 2021
Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson:
We, the undersigned press freedom, civil liberties, and international human rights advocacy organizations, write today to share our profound concern about the ongoing criminal and extradition proceedings relating to Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, under the Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
While our organizations have different perspectives on Mr. Assange and his organization, we share the view that the government’s indictment of him poses a grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad. We urge you to drop the appeal of the decision by Judge Vanessa Baraitser of the Westminster Magistrates’ Court to reject the Trump administration’s extradition request.
The prosecution of Julian Assange for charges related to his publications of government documents on the whistleblower website Wikileaks poses a grave threat to press freedom, EFF, Freedom of the Press Foundation and other human rights organizations argue. In an open letter published today, we call.
Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, speaks with Piya Chattopadhyay about the need for, and pitfalls of, regulating speech on social media, and why he thinks a free exchange of ideas including some we might find objectionable might be a better way to go.
Justice Department Asks Supreme Court to Reverse Trump Twitter Decision
The Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that found that former President Donald Trump’s blocking of critics on the microblogging website Twitter violated the First Amendment, saying the ruling was “deeply problematic.”
President Joe Biden, as well as future presidents and government officials, should not be bound by the decision the high court may well have overturned had the question not become moot by Trump completing his term of office, Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall argued in a supplemental brief filed on Jan. 19 in Trump v. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
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