While his trial opens Monday in London, Guillaume Ledit and Olivier Tesquet, authors of In the head of Julian Assange were the guests of Patrick Cohen, Sunday, in It happened tomorrow. The opportunity to return to what the activist has said they have changed in the way of journalism.

Who is Julian Assange really? This is the question that the two journalists Guillaume Ledit and Olivier Tesquet tried to answer with their book In the head of Julian Assange . The opportunity to return to the extraordinary journey of this activist, who revealed in 2010 the video of a terrible blunder of the American army in Iraq and, in 2016, disseminated emails from the Democratic Party whose source was in Russia . Two feats of arms which brought him to be prosecuted by the justice. And it is that of the United Kingdom which will rule on Monday. She could indeed decide on his extradition to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison.

READ ALSO >> Éric Dupond-Moretti will defend Julian Assange

"It made it possible to modify political situations"

A divisive personality and enamelled with many gray areas, the Australian has marked history or at least journalism, according to his two biographers. "After a few long months of investigation, we can estimate, taking a step back, that Julian Assange has changed and profoundly modified the way we view the internet and the potential of the internet. And this, especially in journalistic practice and how to use the internet to bring about part of what it believes to be the truth, starting from the sources and putting them online ", explains Guillaume Ledit in the program C'est arrive dimanche, on Europe 1.

Even more than giving "a boost to journalistic practice", "it has in some cases made it possible to modify political situations", he adds. A point of view shared by his sidekick, Olivier Tesquet who recalls in passing the initial desire of the Australian hacker to make Wikileaks "a people's intelligence agency" with "the idea of ​​transparency for the powerful and privacy for the citizens".

Chelsea Manning, "true heroine of history"

For Olivier Tesquet, the trial that opens Monday and the sentences against the activist go beyond his own person. "It should not be forgotten that what is at stake in the case of Julian Assange and in particular in the context of these proceedings against him in the United States goes far beyond his personal case but concerns the freedom of the press in as a whole, "he warns, stressing the support of certain media, such as the New York Times, who are worried about the consequences that his conviction could have.

>> Find all of Patrick Cohen's programs in replay and podcast here

But if both emphasize the important role played by Julian Assange, they would nevertheless like to recall that, no less essential, of Chelsea Manning, the former military analyst of the American army who supplied him with the documents classified as secret defense. "The real heroine of the story is Chelsea Manning. She is the source of the biggest revelations from Wikileaks, she is the one who took the risk and she is the whistleblower. Julian Assange is a intermediary that has been talked about a lot, but an intermediary, "insists Guillaume Ledit.

Olivier Tesquet abounds, recalling that the young woman who had received 35 years of imprisonment in 2013, a sentence commuted four years later by Barack Obama allowing him to be released from prison, was again imprisoned in May 2019. She had refused to testify against Julian Assange at a hearing before a federal court in Alexandria, near Washington. "I will not give up on my principles, I would rather literally starve than change my mind," she said at the time.