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With the 11^th year of continuous detention since December 7^th, 2010, The Journalist Support Committee in Geneva (JSC) reiterate its call for the immediate and unconditional release of Julian Assange, founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, and for all charges and legal prosecutions to be dropped, as his trials pave the way for undermining press freedom globally and threatening the security of journalists and researchers in their quest to reveal the truth to local and international communities, especially with the Yahoo News report, which referred to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) discussing the issue of the kidnapping or killing Assange in 2017, before charges were brought against him and the planning of extensive spying on WikiLeaks associates.

JSC demands urgent actions by the American authorities, as well as the British, to release Assange without any restrictions or conditions, as his case poses a blatant threat to the core aim of journalism, which is exposing the truth.

Assange has so far spent 4018 days in illegal detention and 977 days in Belmarsh solitary confinement in London after being extradited from the Ecuadorean embassy. Refusing to release him on bail, the British Court authorized the extension of his detention in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison in the British capital, London, despite his health conditions and the risk of suicide, despite the refusal to deport him.

The most dangerous issue about the British judiciary’s decision remains that it sets a legal precedent in the history of the British and European judiciary, where it explicitly criminalized the basics of any journalistic task, which is the right to receive information, contact sources, and protect them, as well as publishing the information obtained, which may pave the way for the possibility of holding journalists accountable under national security considerations in law.

Journalist Support Committee - Switzerland

Wednesday December 7, 2021