WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said journalists around the world should be troubled by the U.S. charges that accused Assange of conspiracy with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack a government computer.

“The factual allegations against Mr. Assange boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source,” lawyer Barry Pollack said. “Journalists around the world should be deeply troubled by these unprecedented criminal charges.”

(This story has been refiled to correct typographical error in paragraph 2)