RMS: "I am very glad for Assange for being out of prison, but I am alarmed that the danger of being treated similarly will face other journalists and publishers in the future"
Richard Matthew Stallman (aka RMS) met Julian Assange in person (or "prison") at the Ecuadorian embassy not too long after the Edward Snowden-led NSA and GCHQ revelations.
Some years ago I wrote to RMS about Julian Assange and his response was not too positive (on Julian Assange) because someone had convinced him that Julian Assange was helping bad politicians or something to that effect.
So today I checked what RMS said about the release of Julian Assange. He wrote about it 3 times in his political notes since the flight took off.
"The US judge in Julian Assange's case approved his plea bargain, but warned that future journalists were indeed in danger from the US," he wrote a few days ago. Earlier he cited an article that said "Julian Assange may be on his way to freedom but this is not a clear victory for freedom of the press."
The main thing he wrote was this: (about a day earlier)
Julian Assange has accepted a plea bargain according to which he will be sentenced to the time he has already spent in Belmarch prison. (One charge has been filed already by the US for him to plead guilty to.) He is now supposed to go to the Mariana Islands (near Guam) to plead guilty and be sentenced to "time served", and then leave for Australia.Reportedly Australia's support for Assange played a major part in convincing the US to agree to this deal.
I am very glad for Assange for being out of prison, but I am alarmed that the danger of being treated similarly will face other journalists and publishers in the future. If the US had prosecuted the perpetrators of the actions in the "collateral murder" video, none of this would have been necessary.
The plea deal requires approval from the judge. I wonder what will happen to Assange if the judge declines to accept the deal. Could he be sent to a US prison to await trial?
As far as I'm aware, he did not do a full interview or article about this. His right-hand man, who did write about this, was shortly thereafter framed by Microsofters as some kind of "rape" apologist. How very typical of these serial defamers. Support freedom of the press??? Then you must be a rapist or something! █
Photo credit: January 2023 issue of Electronics For You.