On average, 54 flights depart from London Stansted Airport each day.¹ Yet yesterday the eyes of the world were on just one, carrying one of the most controversial figures of the century: Julian Assange.

Under a plea deal agreed with the US government, he will plead guilty to one espionageSpying. charge. In exchange, he will be free to return to his homeland, Australia.

Assange founded WikiLeaksA whistleblowing platform founded by Julian Assange. It has published news leaks and classified documents obtained by anonymous individuals. , an international organisation devoted to publishing information that it deems in the public interest, in 2006.²

Over the years it revealed thousands of secret documents. But it became the focus of American anger in 2010, when it published a series of leaked files passed to it by US soldier Chelsea Manning.

The most infamousFamous for the wrong reasons. of these showed a US helicopter gunning down unarmed civiliansPeople who are not in the army or the police., including two ReutersA major worldwide news agency. journalists, in Iraq.³

The US government opened a criminal investigation over the leaks, which resulted in the conviction of Manning in 2013. Since then Assange has been fighting extraditionWhen one country officials send a suspect to another country to face trial for a crime. to the USA to face similar charges. 

Throughout this time, Assange and his supporters argued that he and WikiLeaks are journalists, exposing the truth to the public as journalists must.

Assange's opponents say WikiLeaks broke the law and put the lives of diplomatic and military personnel at risk.

Some also claim WikiLeaks put journalists and human rights campaigners in danger.

For example, in 2012, WikiLeaks published 250,000 US diplomatic cablesA confidential message exchanged between people on diplomatic missions, such as those in embassies, and staff in the country they are representing. . They exposed spying by US diplomats and negative comments about US allies.⁴

But they also exposed the identities of these activists, many of whom had secret channels to US embassies.⁵

Other Assange supporters think this case is actually a defeat for press freedom. They say the US has established that journalists can be prosecutedThe start of legal proceedings that aim to prove that someone has committed a crime. for doing their jobs.

Is this a victory for freedom of the press?

Yes: Assange won the long fight for his freedom against the world's greatest power. Now others can have confidence that they too can hold the powerful to account and win.

No: Responsible journalists find the balance between exposing the truth and observing security. WikiLeaks is not a media outlet but an activist organisation that puts people in danger. 

Or... Assange spent seven years effectively imprisoned in the Ecuadorian embassy and a further five in a prison called Belmarsh. Now he has been found guilty of spying. The US succeeded in persecuting him, and this will silence others.