JUNE 27, 2018
Last week, rallies in support
of Julian Assange were held around the world. We participated in two
#AssangeUnity events seeking to #FreeAssange in Washington, DC.
This is the beginning of a new
phase of the campaign to stop the persecution of Julian Assange and allow him
to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London without the threat of being arrested
in the UK or facing prosecution by the United States.
The Assange Case is a Linchpin
For Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Information in the 21st Century
The threat of prosecution
against Julian Assange for his work as editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks will be a
key to defining what Freedom of the Press means in the 21st Century. Should
people be allowed to know the truth if their government is corrupt, violating the
law or committing war crimes? Democracy cannot exist when people are misled by
a concentrated corporate media that puts forth a narrative on behalf of the
government and big business.
This is not the first time
that prosecution of a journalist will define Freedom of the Press. Indeed, the
roots of Freedom of the Press in the United States go back to the prosecution of John Peter Zenger, a
publisher who was accused of libel in 1734 for publishing articles
critical of the British royal governor, William Cosby. Zenger was held in
prison for eight months awaiting trial. In the trial, his defense took its case
directly to the jury.
For five hundred years, Britan had made it illegal
to publish “any slanderous News” that may cause “discord” between the
king and his people. Zenger’s defense argued that he had published the
truth about Cosby and therefore did not commit a crime. His lawyer “argued that
telling the truth did not cause governments to fall. Rather, he argued, ‘abuse
of power’ caused governments to fall.” The jury heard the argument,
recessed and in ten minutes returned with a not guilty verdict.
The same issue is presented by
Julian Assange — publishing the truth is not a crime. Wikileaks, with
Assange as its editor and publisher, redefined reporting in the 21st Century
by giving people the ability to be
whistleblowers to reveal the abuses of government and big business. People
anonymously send documents to Wikileaks via the Internet and then after
reviewing and authenticating them, Wikileaks publishes them. The
documents sometimes reveal serious crimes, which has resulted in Assange being
threatened with a secret indictment for espionage that could keep him
incarcerated for the rest of his life.
This puts the Assange case
at the
forefront of 21st Century journalism as he is democratizing the media
by giving people the power to know the truth not reported, or falsely reported,
by the corporate media. Breaking elite control over the media narrative is a
serious threat to their power because information is power. And, with the
internet and the ability of every person to act as a media outlet through
social and independent media, control of the narrative is moving toward the
people.
WikiLeaks is filling a void
with trust
in the corporate media at record lows. A recent Gallup Poll found only
32% trust the media. There has been a significant drop
in newspaper circulation and revenue, an ongoing decline since 1980.
Also, fewer
people rely on television for news.
In this environment, the
internet-based news is becoming more dominant and WikiLeaks is a particular
threat to media monopolization by the elites. Research is showing that independent
and social media are having an impact on people’s opinions.
The threats to Julian Assange
are occurring when dissent
is under attack, particularly media
dissent; the FBI
has a task force to monitor social media. The attack on net neutrality, Google using algorithms to prevent
searches for alternative
media and Facebook controlling the
what people see are all part of the attack on the democratized media.
The Astounding Impact of
WikiLeaks’ Reporting
The list of WikiLeaks’
revelations has become astounding. The release of emails from Hillary Clinton, her presidential campaign, and
the Democratic National
Committee had a major impact on the election.
People saw the truth of Clinton’s
connections to Wall Street, her two-faced politics of
having a public view and a private view as well as the DNC’s
efforts to undermine the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders. People saw the
truth and the truth hurt Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.
Among the most famous
documents published were those provided by Chelsea Manning on Iraq, Afghanistan, the Guantanamo Prison and the US State
Department. The Collateral
Murder video among the Manning Iraq war documents shows US soldiers in
an Apache helicopter gunning down a group of innocent men, including two
Reuters employees, a photojournalist, and his driver, killing 16 and wounding
two children. Millions have viewed the video showing that when a van pulled up
to evacuate the wounded, the soldiers again opened fire.
A soldier says, “Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards.”
Another massive leak came from
Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who exposed massive NSA spying in
the United States and around the world. This was followed by Vault 7, a series of leaks on the Central
Intelligence Agency’s activities, and Vault 8, which included
source code on CIA malware activities.
WikiLeaks has also published
documents on other countries, e.g. WikiLeaks published a series of documents on Russian spying. WikiLeaks
has been credited by many with helping to spark the Tunisian Revolution which
led to the Arab Spring, e.g., showing the widespread corruption of the
23-year rule of the Ben Ali. Foreign Policy reported that “the candor of the
cables released by WikiLeaks did more for Arab democracy than decades of
backstage U.S. diplomacy.” WikiLeaks’ publications provided democracy activists
in Egypt with information needed to spark protests and provided background that explained the Egyptian
uprising. Traditional media publications like the New York Times relied on WikiLeaks to
analyze the causes of the uprising.
WikiLeaks informed the Bahrain
public about their government’s cozy relationship with the US,
describing a $5
billion joint-venture with Occidental Petroleum and $300 million in
U.S. military sales and how the U.S.
Navy is the foundation of Bahrain’s national security.
John
Pilger describes WikiLeaks’ documents, writing, “No investigative
journalism in my lifetime can equal the importance of what WikiLeaks has done
in calling rapacious power to account.”
Assange Character
Assassination And Embassy Imprisonment
Julian Assange made powerful
enemies in governments around the world, corporate media, and big business
because he burst false narratives with the truth. As a result, governments
fought back, including the United States, Great Britain, and Sweden,
which has led to Assange being trapped in the embassy of Ecuador in London for
six years.
The root of the incarceration
were allegations in Sweden. Sweden’s charges against Assange were initially dropped by the
chief prosecutor, two
weeks later they found a prosecutor to pursue a rape investigation.
One of the women had CIA
connections and bragged about her relationship with Assange in tweets she tried to erase.
She even published a
7-step program for legal revenge against lovers. The actions
of the women do not seem to show rape or any kind of abuse. One woman
held a party with him after the encounter and another went out to eat with
him. In November 2016, Assange
was interviewed by Swedish prosecutors for four hours at the
Ecuadorian embassy. In December 2016, Assange published tweets
showing his innocence and the sex was consensual. Without making a
statement on Assange’s guilt, the Swedish
investigators dropped the charges in May 2017. The statute of
limitations for Swedish charges will be up in 2020.
As John
Pilger pointed out, “Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff of Women
Against Rape summed it up when they wrote, ‘The allegations against [Assange]
are a smokescreen behind which a number of governments are trying to clamp down
on WikiLeaks for having audaciously revealed to the public their secret
planning of wars and occupations with their attendant rape, murder, and
destruction… The authorities care so little about violence against women that
they manipulate rape allegations at will.’”
Assange is still trapped in
the embassy as he would
be arrested for violating his bail six years ago. But, the real threat to
Assange is the possibility of a secret indictment against him in the United
States for espionage. US and British officials have refused to tell Assange’s
lawyers whether there was a sealed indictment or a sealed extradition order
against him. Former CIA Director, now Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo
has described WikiLeaks as a non-state hostile intelligence service and described
his actions as not protected by the First Amendment. In April
2017, CNN
reported, “US authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.” The Obama Justice Department determined it
would be difficult to bring charges against Assange because WikiLeaks wasn’t
alone in publishing documents stolen by Manning but the Trump DOJ believes he
could be charged as an accomplice with Edward Snowden.
When the
president campaigned, Trump
said he loved WikiLeaks and regularly touted their disclosures.
But, in April 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions
said that Assange’s arrest is a “priority.”
Time To Stop The Persecution
Of Julian Assange
The smearing of Assange sought
to discredit him and undermine the important journalism of WikiLeaks. Caitlin
Johnstone writes that they smear him because “they can kill all
sympathy for him and his outlet, it’s as good for their agendas as actually
killing him.”
Even with this character
assassination many people still support Assange. This was seen during the #Unity4J
online vigil, which saw the participation of activists, journalists,
whistleblowers andn filmmakers calling for the end of Assange’s solitary
confinement and his release. This was followed a week later by 20
protests around the world calling for Assange’s release.
Julian Assange has opened
journalism’s democracy door; the power to report is being redistributed,
government employees and corporate whistleblowers have been empowered and
greater transparency is becoming a reality. The people of the United States
should demand that Assange not face prosecution and embrace a 21st Century
democratized media that provides greater transparency and accurate information
about what government and business interests are doing. Prosecuting a news
organization for publishing the truth, should be rejected and Assange should be
freed.
You can support Julian Assange
by spreading the word in your communities about what is happening to him and
why. You can also show support for him on social media. We will continue to let
you know when there are actions planned. And you can support the WikiLeaks
Legal Defense Fund, run by the Courage Foundation*, at IAmWikiLeaks.org.
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