By Oscar Grenfell
9 December 2019
9 December 2019
Hundreds of journalists and
media workers from every corner of the globe have put their name to an
impassioned open
letter demanding the unconditional freedom of WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange and an immediate “end to the legal campaign being waged against him for
the crime of revealing war crimes.”
The 422 signatories to date
include WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, world-renowned
investigative journalist John Pilger and Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers
whistleblower who revealed the full criminality of the Vietnam War.
On behalf of the World
Socialist Web Site, the letter has been signed by WSWS International Editorial
Board Chairman David North and other leading WSWS reporters.
The powerful appeal testifies
to the rogue and lawless character of Britain’s imprisonment of Assange in the
maximum-security Belmarsh Prison. It makes clear that the attempt by the US
administration of President Donald Trump to prosecute him on 17 Espionage Act
charges and imprison him for life is viewed among principled journalists as a
frontal assault on press freedom and a dire threat to their own rights.
The journalists’ stand follows
the issuing of an open letter to the British Home Secretary last month by more
than 65 eminent doctors, condemning the denial of adequate medical care to
Assange and warning that he could die in prison. It coincides with a statement
by a group of international lawyers documenting the illegality of the US-led
persecution of Assange and calling for his immediate release.
These initiatives reveal that
outside the rarefied circles of the governments, intelligence agencies and
media corporations that have spearheaded the nine-year campaign against
Assange, world public opinion is with the WikiLeaks founder and against his
persecutors.
The journalists’ letter
states: “This case stands at the heart of the principle of free speech. If the
US government can prosecute Mr Assange for publishing classified documents, it
may clear the way for governments to prosecute journalists anywhere, an
alarming precedent for freedom of the press worldwide.”
The letter bluntly declares:
“In a democracy, journalists can reveal war crimes and cases of torture and
abuse without having to go to jail. It is the very role of the press in a
democracy.”
It reviews the repeated
findings of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that
Assange was effectively subjected to illegal detention by the British
authorities when they besieged the Ecuadorian embassy, where he successfully
sought political asylum in 2012.
The letter outlines the
conclusion of UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer, who has stated that
Assange’s legal and democratic rights have been trampled on and that he has
been subjected to an unprecedented campaign of “public mobbing” that has
amounted to “psychological torture.”
The journalists write: “We
hold the governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom,
Ecuador and Sweden accountable for the human rights violations to which Mr Assange
has been subjected.”
They cite a powerful comment
from Melzer, who wrote earlier this year: “It finally dawned on me that I had
been blinded by propaganda, and that Assange had been systematically slandered
to divert attention from the crimes he exposed.” The UN official pointed to the
role of the corporate press in demonising Assange and repeating the smears
against him concocted by the intelligence agencies.
Significantly, the media
workers state: “Assange has made an outstanding contribution to public interest
journalism, transparency and government accountability around the world.” They
review some of the dozens of awards he has received for WikiLeaks’ reportage.
This is a powerful refutation of the claims of corporate hacks who have aligned
themselves with the Trump administration by stating that Assange is “not a
journalist.”
The letter also takes a stand
for whistleblowers who are being persecuted for having exposed government
criminality, declaring: “Mr Assange’s reporting of abuses and crimes is of
historic importance, as have been the contributions by whistleblowers Edward
Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner, who are now in exile or
incarcerated.”
The journalists invoke the
fight waged by French novelist Émile Zola on behalf of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish
military officer who was framed on bogus espionage charges at the turn of the
19th century. In 1898, Zola wrote his famous “J’Accuse!” open letter, naming
those responsible for the persecution of Dreyfus.
The journalists’ letter
states: “Zola’s stance entered history books and still today stands for our
duty to fight miscarriages of justice and to hold the powerful to account. This
duty is as necessary as ever today, when Julian Assange is being victimised by
governments and faces 17 charges under the US Espionage Act, legislation
that also dates back over a hundred years.”
The comparison is entirely
appropriate. As in the case of Dreyfus, the persecution of Assange is being
spearheaded by the most reactionary forces in society, who are using it as a
precedent to abrogate the fundamental rights of the entire population. And, as
in the defence of Dreyfus, nothing less than the mobilisation of the working
class and of principled supporters of civil liberties, including journalists,
will secure Assange’s unconditional freedom and repulse the attacks on
democratic rights.
The concluding section of the
letter warrants being quoted in full. It states: “As journalists and
journalists’ organisations that believe in human rights, freedom of information
and of the public’s right to know, we demand the immediate release of Julian
Assange.
“We urge our governments, all
national and international agencies and fellow journalists to call for an end
to the legal campaign being waged against him for the crime of revealing war
crimes.
“We urge our fellow
journalists to inform the public accurately about this abuse of fundamental
rights.”
In a sign of the immense
global respect for WikiLeaks, and recognition of the international implications
of Assange’s persecution, the letter has been signed by journalists from
countries as diverse as South Africa, Kenya, Namibia, Uganda, Israel, Lebanon,
Chile, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Russia, China, New Zealand, Australia, Iceland,
Sweden, Italy, France, Turkey, Croatia, Britain, the United States and a host
of others.
Among them are figures with
decades of experience in the media industry. In Australia, this includes Kerry
O’Brien, the chair of the Walkley Foundation, along with investigative
reporters Andrew Fowler and Quentin Dempster.
Current employees of major
media organisations have also signed. In Germany, leading figures at many of
the country’s most prominent news organisations are participating in the
initiative. This includes Becker Sven, the editor of Der Spiegel, and Bastian
Obermeyer, head of investigations at Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Prominent figures in
progressive and anti-war media, including Consortium News editor Joe
Lauria and journalists Chris Hedges, Mark Curtis, Elizabeth Vos, Nozomi Hayase
and many others are signatories.
Also present is Anthony
Bellanger, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, a
global association with 187 affiliated organisations in 140 countries,
representing 600,000 members.
All defenders of Assange and
of democratic rights should promote the stand taken by the journalists as
widely as possible. The letter should be circulated on social media, sent to
all media workers and distributed at university campuses and in working class
areas.
The letter is another
expression of the groundswell of public support for Assange, with the hostility
to his persecution among millions of workers, students, young people and
intellectuals around the world erupting to the surface of political life.
This welcome development
underscores the need to intensify the campaign in his defence, above all by
raising it as widely as possible in the international working class, the most
powerful social force in the world whose interests are inseparable from an
offensive to protect all democratic and social rights.
The full text of the letter
can be read here,
along with the current list of signatories.
