'You don't stand a chance': how the press freedom argument will go for Assange
https://www.smh.com.au/...ce-how-the-press-freedom-argument-will-go-for-assange-20190607-p51vfi.html
Goodale can see a future Assange v United States going all the way to the US Supreme Court.
“I think the world should pay attention to it. It will be a defining case. [A conviction would] make it constitutional to have the equivalent of an Official Secrets Act in the US. It was always thought the First Amendment would stop [that].”
Australia already has its equivalent of Britain’s Official Secrets Act, the 1914 Crimes Act, cited this week after AFP raids on the home of a News Corp journalist and the ABC’s Ultimo offices over leaked classified material. There is, however, no Australian equivalent of the US Constitution’s First Amendment protecting free speech.
Goodale says there is “constant drumbeat” in Washington “to get the leakers … administrations want to stop the leaks because they make government more difficult”.
But, says Goodale, “leaks are the safety valve in the system”.
The Pentagon Papers set a powerful precedent but is of only limited help to Assange, says Goodale. It ruled there could be no barrier to stop publication, but it said nothing about what happens once something is published.
“Rules for [whether someone can be guilty of espionage for] publication have never been set out in the history of the republic,” Goodale says. “What we really don’t want in the world is reporters and publishers subject to criminal sanctions when they’re publishing the truth about what’s going on in the world.”