ITHAKA: The Julian Assange Documentary by Kurt Opsahl

Hello everyone. My name is Kurt Opsall. I am assistant general counsel for cybersecurity and civil liberties policy at the Filecoin Foundation, and I have spent the last 20 years defending your rights online and fighting for civil liberties. I am here to introduce Ithaca. This is a film, a documentary that you are about to see, that will tell you a lot about the story of Julian Assange, his arrest, his imprisonment and his fight against extradition.

The film will show you much about the human side of this story, the struggles that have been necessary and constant over the past few years, since he was detained at the Ecuadorian embassy in 2019. I am here to talk to you about a very important aspect, the broader context of this story; A key point is that the prosecution of Assange threatens freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and journalism. The broader story actually begins 100 years ago with the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act was passed in 1917 and was Congress's attempt to deal with opposition to what was then known as the Great War. We now call it World War I.

They wanted to censor her and prevent people from protesting against her. Furthermore, they had major concerns about espionage by the Central Powers. Some aspects of that law have been modified since then, but much of it remains in force 100 years later, and it is the main law the government uses to pursue spies. But a key point is that, prior to the prosecution of Julian Assange, this law had not been used against journalists. It had not been used against people who received government information from a source or who reported on those documents.

And the information they contained in the media. Now, that centuries-old tradition has been broken because Assange is being prosecuted for basic journalistic tasks: being available to receive leaked information, expressing interest in publishing information about secret government operations, and then disseminating that information to the public. However, deciding whether or not to prosecute someone under this law is a matter for the prosecution. There is nothing in the language of the law that says it cannot be used against journalists. However, for a century it was unofficially accepted that it should not be used against journalism.

So why shouldn't it apply to journalists? Well, one reason is that leaks are a vital part of the free flow of information, on which the information we receive as citizens to understand our democracy depends. Twenty years ago, the United States Supreme Court addressed a very similar case called Bartnicki, where a radio broadcaster received information that had been illegally recorded. It was recorded by a third party in violation of wiretapping laws and they simply left it at the door of the radio station. They did n't know exactly where it came from.

And then they published it. They took this recording, put it on the air, and this case reached the Supreme Court, which decided that it was legal; Publishing truthful information on a matter of public interest is something journalists can and should do; it is protected by the First Amendment it is protected by the First Amendment , even if that information was obtained illegally. Therefore, persecuting someone who acts as a journalist, receiving information that is sometimes classified and definitely secret in order to publish it, is what journalists do and constitutes a challenge to the fundamental principles of freedom of expression. And why is this important? Because what Assange and WikiLeaks were doing is what the press does.

The press represents the public as a way to obtain information about the government and hold it accountable. The positions are very similar to what journalists do; They usually point out that they are available to receive classified information, it is part of their job, and by making this accusation, journalists are warned that they run risks if they receive classified information. If they do anything that upsets or angers the government, they could be charged under a fairly severe criminal statute for encouraging sources and knowingly receiving information. It is seen daily in major national newspapers and television media; They constantly refer to information they have received from classified sources that are not explained. It gets filtered through them and is important for our understanding of the world.

In fact, the Justice Department's charges for some acts, such as revealing information about State Department cables and reports of significant activities in the Iraq war, were also published in major media outlets. The same argument presented in the indictment could have been applied against Der Spiegel, The Guardian, The New York Times, El País and Le Monde, all of which published similar information and some of the same information. Now the Justice Department is trying to justify it by saying that Assange is not a journalist, but this is problematic for several reasons. It is not the role of the Department of Justice to determine who is a journalist. And the courts have consistently determined that what makes a journalist a journalist is practicing journalism, disseminating information to the public.

It is the acts of journalism, not the title or label of journalist, that makes you one. The question is whether a journalist, or someone who wants to be treated as such, wishes to use the material sought, collected, or received to disseminate information to the public. That's the same whether you're a traditional journalist or you run a website that publishes classified information to inform the public. And the government label is not necessary. So, before moving on to the film, I will conclude by recalling one of the most important cases of leaked information important cases of leaked information .

in US history. This was the case of the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers were a set of leaked materials that provided a lot of information about the Vietnam War that an analyst leaked to the press and that were published in the New York Times and the Washington Post. The government tried to stop that publication. It was highly classified material at the time.

The leaker was unknown, but now we know it's Daniel Ellsberg, and you'll actually see him in the movie soon. But the Supreme Court said no, they couldn't do that. They could not stop the publication of this material, even though it was classified information about the Vietnam War. And I'm going to close with a quote from Judge Hugo Black in that case that I think will give you some context to think about while you watch the movie below. And he wrote: "In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy its essential role in our democracy ."

The press should serve the governed, not the rulers. The press was protected so that it could reveal government secrets and inform the people. Only a free and unrestricted press can effectively expose deception in government. And chief among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the public and sending them to distant lands to die in foreign fevers and under foreign gunfire and shells. So this was the purpose of the First Amendment as Hugo Black explained it, and it fit very well with the Pentagon Papers, which dealt with people sent to war, and it fits very well with some of the information leaked by WikiLeaks about the Iraq War.

With that context in mind, I now invite you to enjoy the film Ithaka. Thank you. Hello everyone. I'm Daryl Fannon, CEO and co-founder of Kino. We are the hosts of this screening.

Hey, if you would do me the favor of taking out your cell phones and taking a quick picture of me, but scan this QR code; You can get a free NFT just for being at the screening here at ETH Denver. And if you'd like, we have a table in the back with gifts and instructions. So, if you have any problems or anything, I don't know if you can wave, but we're going to start back there. So we'll leave this for about 60 more seconds and then the Ithaca screening will begin . Thank you so much.