Umm Catherine, there is an important omission in your excellent article on the importance of a free press (Echo, 7 June).
Julian Assange is now entering his fifth year in a UK prison at the behest of that bastion of free speech, the US government.
Assange certainly deserves recognition alongside those other examples you quoted. The public depends on brave people such as Bernard Collaery and the journalists who exposed the truth about Ben Roberts-Smith and PwC.


For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling.