Photo: AP Bahawa wartawan mesti berjuang untuk menegakkan sumber mereka selamat, pengasas Wikileaks Julian Assange Selasa, menggesa organisasi media yang lain untuk mengikuti jejak kumpulan beliau dalam menyokong agresif bagi pihak kebocoran' (That journalists must fight to keep their sources safe, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday, urging other media organizations to follow his group's lead in advocating aggressively on leakers' behalf – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
yaSalam - LONDON (AP) ‘Assange: Wartawan mestilah menyokong untuk kebocoran’ Sabitan Pfc. Bradley Manning menunjukkan bahawa wartawan mesti berjuang untuk mengekalkan sumber-sumber mereka selamat, pengasas Wikileaks Julian Assange Selasa, menggesa organisasi media yang lain untuk mengikuti jejak kumpulan beliau dalam menyokong agresif bagi pihak kebocoran.
Dalam temu bual dengan pemberita di London berikutan sabitan Manning pada perisikan dan caj lain, Assange berkata, ia adalah wajib ke atas setiap organisasi media untuk berdiri bahu ke bahu dengan sumber-sumber mereka terhadap usaha-usaha kerajaan untuk mendakwa kebocoran.
"Ia adalah satu kewajipan ke atas semua wartawan untuk melindungi sumber-sumber mereka - teknikal jika boleh - dan memberi sokongan undang-undang dan politik," katanya. "Ia adalah tanggungjawab semua organisasi kewartawanan untuk memegang baris."
Assange bercakap kepada pemberita dari Kedutaan Ecuador, di mana beliau telah berlubang naik untuk lebih daripada satu tahun untuk mengelak daripada diekstradisi ke Sweden pada dakwaan jenayah seks - atau ke Amerika Syarikat untuk didakwa kerana menyiarkan rahsia kerajaan.
Menarik nada muram dalam saman yang gelap dan tali leher, Wikileaks pengasas 42 tahun mengutuk keputusan itu diturunkan Selasa, tetapi dia dan lain-lain telah lama dijangka disabitkan penganalisis Tentera, dengan alasan bahawa sistem keadilan tentera telah disusun terhadapnya dari bermula.
Assange berkata, beliau tidak mengambil keselesaan dari pembebasan Manning atas tuduhan yang paling serius - membantu musuh - berkata ia adalah "Red herring" yang bertujuan untuk mengalihkan perhatian daripada sabitan di hampir setiap pertuduhan lain, termasuk tuduhan pengintipan, kecurian dan penipuan komputer.
"Ia tidak boleh yang membekalkan maklumat yang benar kepada orang ramai adalah pengintipan," Assange menegaskan, menggambarkan sabitan itu sebagai satu duluan buruk yang akan mengeja "Akhir kewartawanan keselamatan negara di Amerika Syarikat."
Assange juga bimbang bahawa penghakiman telah membantu meletakkan tanah untuk pendakwaan sendiri akhirnya di Amerika Syarikat, sambil menambah bahawa - walaupun Manning sendiri mengakui lulus beratus-ratus ribu dokumen rahsia kepada Wikileaks - kumpulan itu masih menjauhi mendakwa beliau sebagai sumbernya.
Walau bagaimanapun, beliau memuji swasta muda, memanggil dia "Hero" yang akan meletakkan kebebasan dan hidupnya pada baris untuk mendedahkan salah laku. Beliau berkata - walaupun amaran buruk Amerika kerosakan bencana diuruskan oleh kebocoran - Amerika Syarikat masih belum mengenal pasti seorang pun terluka oleh kebocoran.
"Tidak seorang pun datang untuk merosakkan akibat aktiviti Bradley Manning," kata beliau. "Satu-satunya mangsa yang cedera adalah kebanggaan kerajaan Amerika Syarikat."
Assange: Journalists must advocate for leakers
yaSalam - LONDON (AP) The conviction of Pfc. Bradley Manning shows that journalists must fight to keep their sources safe, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday, urging other media organizations to follow his group's lead in advocating aggressively on leakers' behalf.
In an interview with reporters in London following Manning's conviction on espionage and other charges, Assange said it was incumbent on every media organization to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their sources against government efforts to prosecute leakers.
"It is an obligation on all journalists to protect their sources - technically if possible - and provide some legal and political support," he said. "It's an obligation of all journalistic organizations to hold the line."
Assange spoke to reporters from the Ecuadorean Embassy, where he has been holed up for more than a year to avoid being extradited to Sweden on sex crimes allegations - or to the United States to be prosecuted for publishing government secrets.
Striking a somber tone in a dark suit and tie, the 42-year-old WikiLeaks founder condemned the verdict handed down Tuesday, but he and others had long anticipated the Army analyst's conviction, arguing that the military justice system was stacked against him from the start.
Assange said he took no comfort from Manning's acquittal on the most serious charge - aiding the enemy - saying it was a "red herring" intended to distract from his conviction on nearly every other charge, including counts of espionage, theft and computer fraud.
"It can never be that supplying true information to the public is espionage," Assange insisted, describing the conviction as a hideous precedent that would spell the "end of national security journalism in the United States."
Assange also worried that judgment had helped lay the ground for his own eventual prosecution in the United States, adding that - although Manning himself admitted passing hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks - the group was still steering clear of claiming him as its source.
Nevertheless, he was full of praise for the young private, calling him a "hero" who'd put his liberty and his life on the line to expose wrongdoing. He said that - despite dire American warnings of catastrophic damage dealt by the leaks - the U.S. had yet to identify a single person hurt by the leaks.
"Not a single person came to harm as the result of Bradley Manning's activities," he said. "The only victim was the U.S. government's wounded pride."
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