Julian Assange: “I Chose Freedom Over Unrealizable Justice”
The thing is, Julian Assange is not just any political prisoner. All political prisoners suffer unjustly and deserve support. But, due to the worldwide reverberations of his persecution by the US (with eager assistance from Britain and Canada), history will look back – without debate – on Julian Assange as the single most important political prisoner of the initial post-Cold War decades. The issues at stake in Julian’s case were and remain of global importance and will influence the future of human rights, for better or worse:
freedom of expression
the role of free, unimpeded media in holding the powerful to account
states increasingly aggressive efforts to shut down such challenges, especially across borders
the lack of protection for individuals targeted by powerful states that manipulate or disobey their own laws
the enormous abuses suffered by ordinary people, especially in the Global South, at the hands of a sovereign power