Julian Assange case marks the end of critical journalism

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made known the immoral, illegal and unconstitutional actions of the U.S. government so that we now know that it is lying to the people On a grand scale. For this he should be heralded as a watchdog for accountable government, not denounced as a "commie who hates America," says leading political economist Dr. Paul Craig Robert. When the government abuses its powers, it becomes the enemy of its people. History is filled with horrifying examples of how nations fell into tyranny when delusional elites were able to remove the constraints on government authority to their own personal benefit. Civilizations fall if this type of abuse persists.

In the great history of the West, the right to free speech and investigative journalism has been a cornerstone precisely because it allowed the posing of critical questions to those in power. The aim was to check whether they did their job in accordance with laws and regulations. The United States Constitution actively restrains state authority, insisting on the separation of powers to guard against abuse, separating power into independent branches of government: the legislative, the executive and the judicial branch. In a democracy, all three have to be independent from each other, steadily kept in check, so that the interests of the nation state and its citizens remain forefront.

In this prospect, the case of Julian Assange, even though he was freed from the Belmarch maximum security prison in the United Kingdom on June 24, is a tragic reminder of how far from classical, Western values we have drifted. "Freedom of speech is a natural right, it is also expressly protected by the Constitution, and thus it is always to be presumed constitutional and lawful," writes Fox News analyst and former judge Andrew Napolitano: "The case against Assange is a sham and is motivated by the U.S. intelligence community and its colleagues in the Department of Justice (DOJ). It is a sham because the First Amendment protects the freedom of speech of all persons, not just Americans. Even though the materials Assange and WikiLeaks received had been stolen by Manning, [1] because they were and are of profound interest to the public – American drones targeting civilians, secret U.S. military actions in countries with which the U.S. was not at war, and government lying to the public on a grand scale – the media is free to reveal them. The Supreme Court announced this legal principle in the Pentagon Papers case in 1971."

"Assange is now free, but the American media is more imprisoned than ever," says Roberts, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, in a recent interview with Larry Sparano.

He points out that one of the purposes of persecuting Julian Assange was to intimidate journalists from publishing leaked information, and no longer pursue investigative journalism that questions Washington's actions in the U.S. and abroad. This goal has been thoroughly achieved.

Quoted from the interview about the Wikileaks founder: "Assange was not freed in the sense that the case was abandoned or overturned by a higher court. The ordeal of Assange ended when the Justice Department suddenly decided they wanted out, for whatever reason, and quickly arranged a deal. In exchange for Assange making a plea of guilt of one charge – conspiracy to obtain security documents – his sentence would be the time served already in a British jail. But the time he spent was a violation of Habeas Corpus, (the writ to bring a person before a court to ensure that a person's imprisonment or detention is legal) because he has never been accused or convicted of a crime, but he has been in jail for 62 months. There were no charges and no convictions. He spent the time in a tiny cell and solitary confinement. Assange is not an American citizen and not a subject to American law. He was not in the U.S. when WikiLeaks published its findings. Assange had not done anything which is not protected. Washington probably sees it as a victory," says Roberts.

"There is no longer any independent journalism in the print and TV area, and less and less online. There simply is no independent journalism today. The American media was terminated when the Clinton regime allowed six mega corporations to purchase 90% of the media. It is now all concentrated in a few hands," Dr. Roberts points out.

It seems the democratic age of the separation of powers is completely over in the West.

[1] WikiLeaks' source for these secret materials was an Army intelligence specialist, Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Edward Manning.

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