Julian Assange arrest
© Reuters / Henry NichollsMedlemmer af pressen reflekteres i vinduet af en politibil, mens WikiLeaks grundlægger Julian Assange ses indvendig efter at han var blevet arresteret.
Arrestationen af WikiLeaks grundlægger, Julian Assange, er et hårdt slag mod pressfriheden, men massemedierne har ingen indvendinger på trods af, at de aldrig har holdt sig tilbage fra at skrive artikler baseret på hans offentliggørelser, fortalte analytikere til RT.

"Det vi er vidne til lige nu er kriminalisering af journalistik; kriminalisering af offentliggørelse," sagde analytiker Patricke Henningsen timer efter at det britiske politi med magt fjernede Assange fra Ecuadors ambassade i London.

Dette er en "meget uheldig" udvikling og påvirker hver eneste journalist, men de "underdanige massemedier protesterer ikke mod det, som foregår," tilføjede han. De ledende vestlige medier "går i takt med regeringerne i USA, Storbritannien og andre" og ser ikke Assange som deres kollega.


There's "no viable Fourth Estate" anymore, only the "government media complex," Henningsen said.

That aside, Julian Assange has been "a modern Robin Hood for independent journalists. Everybody used what he revealed on [Hillary] Clinton; on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," independent journalist Luc Rivet told RT.

And the MSM also heavily relied on the work done by the WikiLeaks, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell explains. "Assange didn't leak anything," but only made documents, obtained by Chelsea Manning, available to the public. He's "a publisher in the same way that the New York Times and the Guardian that also published the leaks of Chelsea Manning," Tatchell said.

The fact that it's only Assange, who is being persecuted by the US, but not those outlets, "smacks of double standards. It smacks of a vendetta," the activist pointed out.

"The reason the US authorities are going after him isn't because he caused any damage per say, but because he caused huge embarrassment exposing American wrongdoing around the world."

Henningsen stressed that nowadays "things only become protest-worthy if the mainstream media is giving it coverage," so Assange's arrest won't lead to large-scale rallies, adding that only concerned activists will take to the streets.

He expressed the belief that Ecuador, which sheltered Assange for more than six years, withdrew the publisher's asylum claim as a result of "backroom deal that's been done between the Ecuadorian, British and the US governments."

Assange will most likely be extradited to the US where and the "danger is that Julian Assange will not face justice," but only "a facade of due process," he said.

"What's he's going to face is secret grand jury proceedings, most likely in northeastern Virginia, most likely it'll be ruled on by the judge, who has ruled against every single whistleblower under the Obama administration, including Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou and many others."

The US indictment against Assange alleges that the publisher and journalist engaged in a "conspiracy" with US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, who leaked thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks back in 2010.