ACLU Comment on Report of DOJ Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

NEW YORK — The Wall Street Journal today reported that the Department of Justice is preparing to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, issued the following comment in response:

“Any prosecution of Mr. Assange for Wikileaks’ publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations. Moreover, prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public’s interest.”