Couldn’t you apply this to all political scoops during a political campaign, when the reporter is on the opposing side —so all opposition reporters would not be journalists in this take.
Well exactly - this is the problem. When reporting documented, verifiable evidence is treated as 'political activism by journalists', everyone should be worried.
My point, which I should have made more clear, is that none of this matters. If every civil society and journalistic organization in the world rallied to the defense of Assange and agreed that he was performing essential reporting activities, it will have absolutely zero influence on the people who are targeting him.