If you want to be technical about it, he's the subject of an extradition hearing for US charges relating to unauthorised access. If you read between the lines, the only way they can get him behind bars in the US without, as they say, putting the New York Times on trial, is by making these charges stick - otherwise, he's just a journalist like any other.
This is why people say he's on trial for journalism: because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that, if he is tried as a journalist, then by any interpretation of US law he cannot be held guilty for his actions unless they put the US fourth estate behind bars too - but the most recent US administrations have decided that he must be punished, and so will try to get him on anything they can.
Comments
If you want to be technical about it, he's the subject of an extradition hearing for US charges relating to unauthorised access. If you read between the lines, the only way they can get him behind bars in the US without, as they say, putting the New York Times on trial, is by making these charges stick - otherwise, he's just a journalist like any other.
This is why people say he's on trial for journalism: because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that, if he is tried as a journalist, then by any interpretation of US law he cannot be held guilty for his actions unless they put the US fourth estate behind bars too - but the most recent US administrations have decided that he must be punished, and so will try to get him on anything they can.