Wikileaks' Assange was lucky to end legal battle after pleading guilty
By Nantoo Banerjee
With a record number of over 360 journalists detained in jail in more than 30 countries across the world mostly on the charges of espionage, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange must thank Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his stars to get himself freed after pleading guilty to violating the US espionage law, ending a 14-year-long legal battle. In a rare show of respect for and diplomatic solidarity with Australia, the US finally decided to pardon Assange. WikiLeaks was involved in the most controversial leaks of classified US military documents and videos from the war the country waged in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early part of this century highlighting abuse of prisoners in American custody, human rights violations and civilian deaths.
Media spying of officially classified information or of alleged wrongdoing by a ruling political party's key leaders affecting the public and the opposition is never taken lightly by any government in the world. Assange's return to Australia, last week, ended a long saga in which he spent more than five years in a high-security British jail and seven years in asylum in London's Ecuadorean embassy battling extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations and to the US where he faced 18 criminal charges. If proved, Assange could have faced the prospect of spending probably the rest of his life in the US jail. In 2010, WikiLeaks released thousands of US classified military documents on the country's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. No media organisation ever dared to do such an investigation. Assange was an excellent hacker.
The western world is currently most agitated over the trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was locked away for 15 months in a Moscow Jail. Gershkovich's trial is taking place about 1,500 km away in Yekaterinburg, where he was arrested on espionage charges while on a reporting assignment for the WSJ. Years ago, another WSJ correspondent in Pakistan, Daniel Pearl, was abducted and killed by his captors. He was on his way to interview Pakistani religious cleric Mubarak Ali Gilani in Karachi. In a somewhat similar fashion, a Saudi journalist, Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel, a columnist for Middle East Eye and The Washington Post, was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul allegedly by the agents of the Saudi government.
Once close to the Saudi Royal family, Khashoggi criticised in his monthly column in the Washington Post the policies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler. Not many years ago, three journalists working for Qatar-based international English news channel Al Jazeera – Australian Peter Greste, Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed – were taken into custody by Egyptian security forces on the charges of reporting news which was “damaging to national security.” They were found guilty and awarded imprisonment between seven and 10 years. Subsequently, they received a presidential pardon.
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-profit organisation with correspondents around the world promoting press freedom, there were 363 journalists detained in more than 30 countries last year with the highest number of detainees held in Iran, China and Myanmar. Last year's CPJ report said seven journalists incarcerated in India constituted a high number for the third consecutive year. Four of them were from Jammu Kashmir. India “continues to draw criticism” over its use of anti-terror laws, including UAPA and J&K Public Safety Act.
Among the incarcerated journalists in India were Asif Sultan, Sajad Gul, Rupesh Kumar Singh, Gautam Navalkha, Majid Hyderi, Irfan Mehraj and Prabir Purkayastha of the Dhanbir Maibam, editor of India's north-eastern state Manipur's Imphal-based news publication HueiyenLanpao, was arrested on January 5, this year, on the charges of “promoting enmity on grounds of religion and race.” This came days after the arrest of another Manipuri journalist Wangkhemcha Shyamjai, editor-in-chief of Kangleipakki Meira. While these arrests were not much reported in India, Prabir Purkayastha's arrest got wide publicity. Purkayastha, a telecom engineer cum activist and founding member of the Delhi Science Forum, was lodged in Tihar jail on November 2, 2023.
Recently, the Supreme Court of India declared the arrest “invalid” following which he was granted bail by a lower court in Delhi which had sent him to jail. The 74-year-old journalist was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The charges against him revolved around allegations of receiving funds from abroad to spread pro-China propaganda. The chargesheet claimed a ‘news-syndications scam' whereby columnists and authors working for activist Teesta Setalvad were paid by Purkayastha.
However, in all fairness, the media in India enjoys considerable freedom to investigate, analyse and report the faults of the government and public institutions in a disapproving way. The multi-party democratic system, the Right to Information Act, a strong and independent upper judiciary and the country's constitution provide reasonable props to protect press freedom in India. All media platforms – print, electronic and digital – have the right to voice and express their thoughts which are of public interest. The article 19 (1) (a) of the Indian constitution guarantees all citizens the right to freedom of speech and expression. Yet, one must say that it is time that the Indian government should make a strong move to change the Official Secrets Act to strike a balance between this repressive law and the Right to Information Act of 2005.
In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), the governments all over the world need to relook at the issues of official secrets, the use of digital technology for hacking and, at the same time, AI's role in bolstering authoritarian tactics. Technological progress threatens to weaken fundamental freedoms. AI can be used as a weapon of repression impacting on human rights. Interestingly, in his last interview with the World Ethical Data Forum before his arrest in London, Julian Assange said “the AI-ification of computer hacking is something that will happen, because you are automating it.” If it does, the protection of official secrets will be difficult in due course for governments and institutions. AI offers powerful tools for digital searches, data analysis, and content repurposing, which can be game changers in newsrooms. The real challenge before the governments or regulatory authorities is to fix accountability for tech companies involved in disseminating disinformation. (IPA Service)
