Media Trust Under Strain

Two months into a last-ditch effort at hanging on to a marathon legal battle in Britain for avoiding extradition to the United States, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is in a dicey situation. His reports were factual to the global public but damagingly embarrassing to the American establishment. The 52-year-old Australian, holed up in London for more than a decade, has exhausted almost all his options as he engages in perhaps the last lap of legal tussle that hangs on a thread. His team of lawyers argue that his disclosures exposed “criminal actions” by the US authorities and thereby served public interest.