The reason Assange has been in various forms of custody for almost twelve years is not because he committed any real crimes but because he has embarrassed the political establishment.

It’s up to those of us who do actually care about the truth and who oppose not only the misdeeds of the foreign regimes that our governments want to overthrow but, more urgently, the authoritarianism already at work in our own countries to demand that those in charge of the United Kingdom and US governments abide by the principles they have so far only pretended to embody. And that starts with dropping the charges against Julian Assange.

If they refuse to do so, that will reveal more about them than any dissident journalist could.