It’s funny, I live in the US and have been publicly critical of various aspects of the last 7 presidents and no one has jailed me yet for that criticism or even threatened me in any way.
When the government behaves worse than a criminal, it is only heroic to expose its crimes. Especially heroic when you know it's a violent, arrogant and vindicative government.
I don’t disagree, but Snowden and Assange’s legal issues are due to criminal acts, not because of political speech.
You can certainly create justification around those criminal acts being for the greater good, but that doesn’t mean that they are no longer criminal acts.