"This time, Assange was finally granted the right to appear in person. Although an empty iron cage sat in the courtroom waiting for Assange, Assange was too sick to show up. He had broken a rib due to excessive coughing.

"The situation is dire. And not just for the life of one man. Assange’s case is the press freedom trial of the twenty-first century.

"If the United States succeeds in prosecuting Assange under the Espionage Act for publishing information about its war crimes, it will be shredding the First Amendment’s press freedom guarantees. But the damage will extend far beyond US borders. Assange is not an American, and WikiLeaks is not based in the United States. The United States is asserting the right to track down any journalist anywhere in the world, seize them, haul them to the United States, and disappear them into a US prison."