Overseas experts lean in on Julian Assange-type prosecution of an opposition politician for sharing legally acquired diplomatic secrets

On July 1, 2024, the University of California at Irvine Law School’s International Justice Clinic, headed by the former United Nations Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion Professor David Kaye, submitted an amicus brief commenting on the status of international human rights law restricting the application of the breach of official secrecy law to the lawful acquirer and publisher of classified information.

Open Net had conducted a seminar back in 2019 on the case of MP KHANG Hyosang who received classified information on the past President Moon’s conversation with the then US President Trump from his former high school friend, now a diplomat, and shared it with the public. He was prosecuted for breach of official secrecy although he acquired information lawfully and without any coercion, fraud, or bribe. A similar issue had arisen out of the case of Julian Assange, the leader of Wikileaks, who was now freed of criminal liability through the plea bargain. The case is currently at the Supreme Court after guilty verdicts as the lower courts. The Julian Assange-type prosecutions can threaten the scope of investigative journalism worldwide, and there must be greater proof of harm to national security than the formalism that classified information has been divulged, the amicus brief opines.