Julian Assange arrest: Why free speech advocates are worried

Now that Julian Assange's stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London has come to an end, First Amendment advocates are worried about how his prosecution could affect the rights of journalists.

The Wikileaks co-founder is wanted in Sweden for allegations of sexual assault. But it's not that charge that worries free speech advocates. It's the fact that the U.S. Department of Justice filed charges against Assange for "conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer." 

That is, the DOJ is formally charging Assange for encouraging Chelsea Manning to acquire classified documents (that Assange would later publish on Wikileaks) by breaking into a government computer system. Read more...