An experienced Australian war correspondent has hit back at claims Julian Assange is a journalist, instead arguing the WikiLeaks founder is an “activist” who released troves of sensitive information without sufficiently redacting it.Assange pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information, a violation of the US Espionage Act, in a US district court in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday.
“That puts the soldiers at risk, that puts our methods and our methodology at risk, and it also puts the locals, who were putting their lives on the line, at risk, whether they worked for us or whether they’re supplying us with information.” “He later worked with journalists but he just took all this very, very sensitive information and dumped it out there for our enemies to see.”
Mr Ware said WikiLeaks, founded in 2006 by Assange, had “served a purpose and part of it has been a noble service,” but pointed to the"unbelievable" work of Netherlands-based investigative journalism group Bellingcat. “I would have taken those secret documents too. But I wouldn’t have just dumped them out there for our opponents to see.”
“For 12 years Assange chose to avoid facing justice in countries with fair judicial systems. He is underserving of this treatment,” he posted on X.