In the US plenty of news agencies have reported on leaked information that the government wasn’t fond of without being imprisoned. The case with Assange is a bit special as he sought out and helped people steal and release information that they were not permitted to release.

If he made an effort to truly remain separate from the sourcing of information, as most reputable reporting agencies do, then he’d likely not be in prison.

Look at the release of the Pentagon Papers.

I'm not sure why you worded this in such a combative manner? It is undeniably true that any government comprised of humans will move to conceal or shut-up inconvenient sources of truth that make their actions look bad.

I agree.

I recently read the book "American Muckraker" by James O'Keefe. It has quite a few examples of that in modern US.

Based on unconfirmed rumors, similar things do happen here in Montenegro as well.

>Assange is a puppet of Russia

Sure. As well as Snowden and Manning. And anybody else who disagrees with the official govt line. They all are Russian actors. That's how democracy works.