Look Who it Was Random video

In Tying Bradley Manning to Julian Assange, is Gov't Trying to Silence Journalists & Whistleblowers?

967 views · Published 4 June 2013 · 3:01 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: Democracy Now! · 2013 · News & Politics

Watch on YouTube

Watch the full interview with attorney Michael Ratner on Democracy Now! at http://owl.li/lHlrg. On the opening day of Bradley Manning's trial at Fort Meade, the government sought to establish close ties between the Army whistleblower and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Military prosecutor Capt. Joe Morrow cited chat logs he said showed a "familiarity" between the two and said Manning had helped WikiLeaks edit the "Collateral Murder" video showing a fatal U.S. attack on two Reuters journalists in Iraq. Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a lawyer to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, says Manning's prosecution and the government's focus on WikiLeaks is designed to have a chilling effect on whistleblowing and the journalism it informs. "There is a major attack on truth-tellers, on journalists, and this trial really encapsulates that," Ratner says. "The sad part is there's a human being at the center of this."

"They're trying to get journalists in as co-conspirators for aiding and abetting their sources. They've started with Julian Assange. This trial is, in fact, in part -- perhaps a large part -- about getting journalists like Julian Assange and WikiLeaks."

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,100+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Check out our vast news archive and stream live 8-9am ET at http://www.democracynow.org.

FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/democracynow
Twitter: @democracynow
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/democracynow
Listen on SoundCloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/democracynow  
Daily Email News Digest: http://www.democracynow.org/subscribe

More from this channel