The National Coalition Against Censorship joins advocates of a free press everywhere in condemning the Justice Department’s indictment of Julian Assange under the Espionage Act. By seeking to punish Assange for the publication of secret information, the Trump administration has crossed a line that has been respected by presidents since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the First Amendment right of the New York Times to publish the Pentagon Papers. That decision upheld the public’s right to view information that is damaging to the government. It is a right that is now in grave danger.

 

Image via Cancillería del Ecuador [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons