Should the Mange present in court as a journalist / publisher seeking free-speech protection he may be cross examined on these statements of his that he is a spy and/ or a combatant in a war and a war propagandist. Media practitioners and their advocates routinely emphasize the civilian and protected nature of their professional work when reporting on armed conflict. They never claim to be spies and/or warfighters. Any argument Assmange is a journalist - publisher confronts statements of his that contradict this. For example. That WL are ‘spies for the people’ and that the organization is a peoples intelligence agency. Journalism has rules, ethics; espionage has no rules/ethics. Then - in May 2017 - Assmange suggest a ’ proper war is commencing’, calls for ’ acts of resistance’ and sez WL is a ‘combatant’. Journalists are neither combatants, nor spies. They are civilian non-combatants.
