SAN FRANCISCO - JUNE 30 : Campaigners for the freedom of Bradley Manning take part at the annual San Francisco Gay pride parade on June 30, 2013. Photo: Kobby Dagan © Mostphotos 2013

"Obviously this is a major breakthrough for people who have been fighting for Chelsea Manning for a number of years. It suggests a number of things - one of which is that the sentence of 35 years that was given to Manning was considered to be excessive, which suggests also that it may have been punitive and was intended to send a message to other whistle-blowers thinking of doing the same thing", said Christian Christensen, Professor of Journalism, Stockholm University to BBC.

Listen to the service in BBC's iPlayer Radio [interview between 11:50 - 15:15, Wed 18 Jan 2017.].