In a recent High Court hearing, the U.S. argued that Julian Assange endangered lives by releasing classified information.
However, the responsibility to safeguard such information squarely falls on the U.S., not on Assange, an Australian journalist.
It's the U.S. government's job to secure its secrets and hold accountable those within its ranks who allowed the breach.
Assange, in exposing U.S. military wrongdoings, was fulfilling his journalistic duty, not breaching it.
The publication of these secrets shed light on war crimes, making it not just his right but his obligation to bring them to public attention.
Holding Assange accountable for the U.S.'s inability to protect its own data misplaces blame and undermines the essential role of journalism in holding power to account.