Why we should care about Julian Assange? Because next time they come for us...

It's now probable that Julian Assange will never be able to walk as a free man anywhere ever again. The Nobel Foundation has been found wanting yet again, for not highlighting the plight of whistle-blowers, preferring to side with the establishment in the awards it has been handing out. So too are the major press houses complacent when the journalistic profession is under major attack by the US government.

The 'war on terror' and Russia's meddling in the US election are mere diversions from the US administration's attempts to gain more control over the rights and freedoms of its citizens. Unelected officials and opaque, rather than transparent, government institutions are an affront to representative government and accountability. There is also a direct attack upon journalism as we know it. The word 'investigative' is now dangerous. Now, persuading a source of information to provide more information is defined as a crime. The message is out there: investigate what the government doesn't want people to know, and the same will happen to the journalist who investigates that is happening to Julian Assange now.

National security is the new mode of censorship and journalists, no matter where they are, can be subject to US indictment. The press is becoming more restricted now than it was a couple of generations ago.

While progressives are concerned about same-sex marriage and the greens about climate change, the greatest threat to the rights and freedoms of people is ignored, allowing governments the freedom to continue to encroach these rights and freedoms.

The Assange experiment with Wikileaks has been of great personal cost to him. However the episode playing out now will result in a loss of freedom of speech and the right to know. Journalism could slip into the dark ages and pure investigative journalism may give way to a placid reporting of public events. This is a victory for the unaccountable elements of government that are willing to circumspect the US Constitution, break laws, kill, and prosecute those who may divulge the truth to the public.