Good things are happening! A blockbuster plea deal ensures free speech won’t be silenced. What’s more, the government recovers hundreds of millions from corporate rulebreakers, social security catches up to the times, a state park returns to its original owners, and a Native American tribe leaves it to beavers.
Big Leak for WikiLeaks
In what supporters are calling a “huge win for free speech,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked free last Tuesday after a decade-long legal ordeal over his leaks of U.S. military secrets. As part of a plea deal, Assange pled guilty to a single charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information, while the Justice Department ended up dropping 17 of the 18 charges it had filed against him.
Since Assange had been facing up to 175 years in prison over his publication of secret and classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, organizations like the International Federation of Journalists said that allowing Assange to go free helps prevent the criminalization of journalism.
