In my talk for the ‘Imperialism on Trial: Free Julian Assange’ speaker meeting of 8th September 2020 – the second day of Assange’s extradition trial – I compare the relationship between the government and journalists revealed by the phone hacking scandal of 2005-14, and by the case of Julian Assange of 2010-20. I argue that the wrong journalists have escaped prosecution, and the wrong one is being subjected to it, and that the causes of Hacked Off and of freedom for Julian Assange support each other by demanding a distanced relationship between press and government, and access to justice for victims of press abuses.