67421f0446f86f380ef0b423_pa3689c.jpg Paul Lachine

A Press Without Principles

With the US government threatening WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with extradition and prosecution, one would expect all prominent American media outlets to run lead editorials defending his right to publish. Instead, all we have heard is an awkward, deafening, and breathtakingly hypocritical silence – or worse.

NEW YORK – Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is in the news again, this time after former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer turned over to him confidential records on roughly 2,000 wealthy individuals that Elmer claims contain evidence of money laundering and tax evasion. Elmer was quickly convicted of violating Switzerland’s bank-secrecy law, but few journalists have demanded that Assange be prosecuted for his role in the affair. That, apparently, happens only in the United States.

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