The AFP raids on Australian journalists would not have happened if Julian Assange had not been arrested, the current WikiLeaks boss has warned.
And WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said the action could embolden governments to commit more “aggressive acts against journalists” and hide more information unless regimes, including the Australian government, were held to account.
Mr Hrafnsson said questions were already being asked on the world stage about the Australian Government’s apparent failure to support Mr Assange, and his forcible removal from the Ecuadorean embassy and incarceration told governments it was possible to take bold action against journalists without repercussions.
Australian Federal Police raided the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst and the ABC’s Sydney newsroom in June and seized information related to news stories on government powers to spy on citizens and defence documents detailing the operations of Australian special forces. “To speak about balance between government secrecy and the public’s right to know is to not acknowledge how seriously out of balance these things have become.”
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