In 2004 the Memorial Union’s Distinguished Lecture Series invited the late political columnist Robert Novak to speak. Novak was the reporter who had made headlines the year before after publishing classified information allegedly leaked by the Bush White House which exposed CIA operative Valerie Wilson.

Novak, despite having published government secrets, was not prosecuted by the Department of Justice nor branded a traitor. His nationally syndicated column was not dropped. Instead he was invited – and paid – to speak at our university.

That introduction serves as a backdrop to talking about Julian Assange, the Australian national who heads the infamous WikiLeaks organization and website. The man who has, after releasing thousands of U.S. State Department documents, become an international pariah and embarrassment. He is under investigation by a United States Department of Justice determined to charge him with anything that will stick. Never mind that his crime, if it is such, is little different than Novak’s outing of Valerie Wilson.

Though he may not be a criminal – at least not for his WikiLeaks work – Assange is certainly no hero either. Though he has won many awards for other free-speech advocacy, the State Department cables are more about generating headlines than promoting government transparency. Their release has not exposed wrongdoing, vindicated the oppressed or achieved any other lofty goals. Rather, they have become more or less gossip.

The idea of WikiLeaks as a place to publish information and documents that expose wrongdoing by powerful interests – and in doing so contribute toward a more just society – is a sound one. However, it demands editorial responsibility. Releasing secret information for the sake of releasing secret information benefits nobody. It threatens to harm the proper diplomatic missions of our government. It also undermines the legitimacy of the website as an advocate for the marginalized and makes it only an annoyance to the powerful.

In releasing the documents more for its own amusement than the benefit of anyone else, WikiLeaks also threatens to make a mockery of those who are actually fighting and sacrificing for the freedoms whose limits Assange tests. People like 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo of China – an outspoken advocate for democracy and freedom of speech who remains imprisoned for subversion. Or journalists like Oleg Kashim, a Russian who penned a defiant article for last Sunday’s New York Times from the confines of the hospital in which he remains after a savage beating.

As objectionable as Assange’s decision to release the cables may have been, there are two reasons why he should not be prosecuted. First of all, treating him like a dissident in the same way that China has dealt with Xiaobo would suggest that Assange’s actions pose the same structural threat to the American system that Xiaobo’s writings do to China’s. They do not. Our society is based on ideals of openness and transparency. While Assange pushes those limits, he does not threaten that foundation. Jailing him would also make the United States appear weak in the same way that imprisoning dissidents exposes the brittleness of other nations.

Secondly, we have a long tradition of leaving alone journalists who publish sensitive information that is given to them by internal sources; Novak being a recent case in point. To go back on that and prosecute Assange could have a chilling effect on the ability of other journalists to investigate and publish freely. Freedoms which are vital to a free and open democracy.

However objectionable his actions, Julian Assange is neither a criminal mastermind nor a free-speech hero. His decision to publish the State Department documents simply because he could has shown him to be little more than just another jerk with a website. In doing so, he has also undermined the important mission of WikiLeaks. We should respect our long tradition of wide journalistic freedoms, and recognize that we have little to gain – and much to lose – by prosecuting him.

Geoff Jara-Almonte ([email protected]) is a 4th year medical student.