Today the UN celebrates World Press Freedom Day and will name one person or institution who has contributed most to freedom and truth through reporting in the face of danger, without fear or favour.
The UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize is in the name of the Columbian journalist who bravely reported on drug crime lords in his homeland and was assassinated.
In 2020, who will that person be?
The theme for this year without Fear or Favour, the main plank in the journalism Code of Ethics, is especially poignant in the case of Julian Assange whose public persona has been embattled by smears and resentment, much of it from Democrat Party supporters who viewed the WikiLeaks release of emails which revealed the DNC suppressed the selection of Bernie Sanders as the party’s presidential candidate, in a negative light.
But this is journalism without fear or favour.
Yet President Obama decided not to prosecute Mr Assange as to do so would breach the 1st Amendment rights of free speech, available to every person under the US Constitution; and imperil every news organisation who reported on the Iraq and Afghan war logs which exposed US military war crimes. This, from a government which prosecuted three times the number of people under the 1917 Espionage Act than any previous administration combined. What does this tell us?
That the investigative reporter’s fundamental role would have been so undermined by applying the Espionage Act to Mr Assange, that every news organisation and investigative reporter uncovering secret government crimes and corruption, might now be in jail.
This is where Mr Assange is and freedom of the press now is – jailed for one year in Belmarsh maximum security prison and though uncharged, denied bail in the covid-19 crisis-stricken jail environment in which two inmates have already died.
Julian Assange’s freedom is emblematic of the freedom of the press. When Trump was elected, former CIA Director, now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that crushing WikiLeaks was the primary goal of the new US administration, thus indicating that freedom of the press was under attack by the US Government.
That revenge is evidenced by a leaked email released by WikiLeaks showing CIA security contractor Stratfor had plans to move Mr Assange “from country to country to face various charges for the next 25 years. But seize everything he and his family own to include every person linked to WikiLeaks”. (1)
In 2012 Mr Assange received asylum in the Ecuador Embassy because he rightly suspected that the US was trying to render him to the United States. Swedish prosecutors had tried to develop a case based on a premise they had no evidence for, in order to get Mr Assange to agree to fly to Sweden to answer questions. The case was shut and opened three times and the UK Crown Prosecutions Service emailed the Swedish prosecutors not to come to the UK to interview Mr Assange in the Embassy and “not to get cold feet”.(2)
This is the elephant in the room, exactly the situation journalism finds itself in; as Mr Assange fights for his life and his freedom, as the current administration of Donald Trump pursues Mr Assange’s extradition to the US to face 17 charges under the Espionage Act, carrying a combined sentence of 175 years jail.
In its first 10 years, WikiLeaks released 10 million documents to the public eye, a colossal trove of information about what our governments and corporations are up to behind our backs. News organisations made millions from the material, informing their readers of secret bank accounts from The Panama Papers, the war crimes of Iraq and Afghan War Logs and Collateral Murder video, what countries are plotting from the Diplomatic Cables, and evidence of ecocide and corruption.
What the US administration is actively seeking is the suppression of news, the criminalisation of journalism and a transnational reach which brings any citizen of the world under the jurisdiction of the US, yet without the protections of the US Constitution, as US lawyers are arguing in Mr Assange’s extradition hearing that the Constitutional rights do not apply to non-American citizens.
Why aren’t we talking about it? What does the show trial to extradite Julian Assange say about the man and his work?
The most powerful government in the world seeks to jail for 3 lifetimes the most famous publisher in the world, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and multiple journalism award winner.
“If we decide that journalism is criminal we are in big trouble”.
“Journalism, should be that in which the public could see classified information from powerful institutions – the proof – for themselves.”
It is a Post Media Columnist not-for-profit model that garnered huge support.
As Margaret Sullivan Media Columnist for the Washington Post recently said: “If we decide that journalism is criminal, we are in big trouble.”
The Elephant in the Room is now in focus – it is the vast volume of public service journalism that WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange has produced, and the correspondent silence of the media class that has benefitted from WikiLeaks releases, both financially and in reputation, yet has failed to acknowledge his sacrifice and work. To sacrifice Julian Assange and his legacy is to sacrifice a free press and the role of journalism. That is the Elephant in the Room. Let’s shine a light on the plight of Julian Assange and press freedom.
Article IDEAS – Stories yet to be Told…
1. Future of the Press. What does the world look like when investigative journalism is dead?
2. The audio-video trial suddenly went to shambolic status. When Assange’s first extradition to Sweden hearing commenced, it was live-streamed to 14,000 people on Sky TV. Now in the Covid-19 crisis, the dial-in audio is barely audible, so much so that a clerk had to repeat the words of Assange counsel Edward Fitzgerald to those present in the Westminster Magistrates Court. How due process is not being met by conditions in the court.
3. Getting Away With It All. Why is it acceptable for the bottom-feeder contractors to the state intelligence agencies to get away with murder? Activists’ lives have been ruined by infiltrators from these agencies – do we need laws to limit the reach of these actors for the state?
4. UK slips down press freedom index, partly due to ongoing persecution of Julian Assange. The UK has now fallen to 35th position in the latest World Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders (RSF). One reason for scoring the UK behind 34 other countries was that “Wikileaks founder Julian Assange received a disproportionate prison sentence of 50 weeks for breaking bail”.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2020/04/21/uk-slips-down-press-freedom-index-partly-due-to-ongoing-persecution-of-julian-assange/
5. Corporate Manslaughter: Howard League and Prison Reform Group Open Letter.
In UK law, where there is evidence of gross negligence in a prison’s duty of care, that prison, Minister of Justice, Robert Buckland and those who enable Assange’s death unintentionally (either directly or indirectly), are culpable and not above the law. They can be prosecuted under the Corporate Manslaughter statutes. As long as Assange is in UK custody, the UK is responsible for his welfare.
Howard League sent to UK Minister of Justice Robert Buckland.
Prison Reform Group Warns of Legal Challenges for Deaths in Custody, putting UK Minister of Justice Robert Buckland on notice.
Due to our increasing concern, we have publishing this letter straight away.
http://prisonreformtrust.org.uk/portals/0/documents/letters/Covid-19%20open%20letter%20to%20SoS%20080420.pdf
https://howardleague.org/news/judicial-review-howard-league-and-prison-reform-trust-issue-government-with-letter-before-action-over-its-response-to-coronavirus-in-prisons/
6. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, speaks in detail about the explosive findings of his investigation into the case of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Let’s see where we will be in 20 years if Assange is convicted – what you will still be able to write then as a journalist. I am convinced that we are in serious danger of losing press freedoms. It’s already happening: Suddenly, the headquarters of ABC News in Australia was raided in connection with the «Afghan War Diary». The reason? Once again, the press uncovered misconduct by representatives of the state. In order for the division of powers to work, the state must be monitored by the press as the fourth estate.
https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/nils-melzer-about-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange
LEADING PRESS FREEDOM / ASSANGE SUPPORTERS
John Pilger
Chris Hedges
Roger Waters
Brian Eno
Nils Melzer (UN)
Chelsea Manning
Jennifer Robinson
Glenn Greenwald
Pamela Anderson
George Galloway
Caitlin Johnstone
Jimmy Dore Show
wiseupaction.info
couragefound.org
LINKS
One year later The Guardian corrects
https://www.rt.com/uk/476767-guardian-correction-assange-story/
Video on Ecuador Embassy surveillance by UC Global
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s_0GVg7V3ng&feature=youtu.be
Ecuador Embassy Surveilance technical scheme
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2019/Fahrplan/events/11247.html
Former First Sec & Ecuador diplomat in London Fidel Narváez debunks 40 smears
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/20/cnn-media-smears-julian-assange-fidel-narvaez/amp/
Govt manipulation of court case
https://mobile.twitter.com/MintPressNews/status/1187168935671750657
Mark Bean’s article Gutenberg to Assange
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/media-dead-silent-as-wikileaks-insider-explodes-the-myths-around-julian-assange/
Julian’s statement to Swedish investigators
https://justice4assange.com/IMG/html/assange-statement-2016.html
Facts about Sweden
https://mobile.twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1127590798189572096
How Lenin Moreno sold out Assange
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHVP33Myzmw&feature=youtu.be
How the Council on Foreign Relations controls the narrative
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2018/02/wikileaks-exposes-how-council-on-foreign-relations-controls-most-all-mainstream-media/
UK Blocks Spanish Judge from questioning Julian Assange over spying allegations
https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/10/23/inenglish/1571817241_796975.html
How the Left deserted Assange by believing the smears of just Empire. Support for Assange now increasing incrementally from learned people to stop US making universal laws, and from criminalizing journalists
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=5vh9
Chief Magistrate Lady Emma Arbuthnot and family vested interests
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-11-15-conflicts-of-interest-judge-in-julian-assange-case-fails-to-declare-sons-links-to-uk-and-us-intelligence/
Suzi Dawson Being Julian Assange
https://contraspin.co.nz/beingjulianassange/
Rollingstone on Assange 2012
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/julian-assange-the-rolling-stone-interview-234403/amp/
Caitlin Johnstone – Australia
@caitoz
Assange’s Persecution Has Exposed Media Depravity The World Over
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/02/22/assanges-persecution-has-exposed-media-depravity-the-world-over/
Debunking All The Assange Smears
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/04/20/debunking-all-the-assange-smears/
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@WISE Up Action
Jamie Ewing
