The Imperative to Defend and Protect those who Expose Wrongdoing in and
attached to Public Office; those who Challenge Abuses of Power
The right of a free press, the right to know, and the rights of the
messengers are all under attack by countries and leaders who present theirs as “democratic”
countries and by those who are clearly “undemocratic” and/or authoritarian.
|
T
|
herefore, taking just one well-known case, Julian Assange imprisoned in
the Ecuadoran Embassy in Britain, and now further threatened by the relatively
new regime in Washington: “Widespread sympathy for Julia Assange must be
mobilized and transformed into a mass political movement of the working class,
demanding his immediate freedom and an end to his persecution,” Oscar Grenfell
writes.
[“P]reparations must be made for mass political action … in workplaces,
factories, neighborhoods and on university campuses; including protests,
demonstrations, and strikes.”
If the journalist and
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy, he
will likely face “extradition to the United States.”
|
I
|
n the United States last month, as Vice President Mike Pence was about
to embark on an official trip to Ecuador, “ten prominent Democratic Party
senators issued an open letter calling on the vice president to demand that (the
Republic of Ecuador’s President Lenin) Moreno oust Assange.”
Grenfell terms the act by US senators a “brazen call for state
persecution of a political refugee” that is indicative of a “feverish campaign
in US ruling circles to force Assange into their (US) clutches.”
Free press under attack
Coming from around the world, “the attacks on Assange are one of the
sharpest expressions of governments’ turn toward authoritarianism…: major
powers are seeking to establish new precedents for the persecution of
journalists, whistleblowers and political dissidents,” Grenfell writes.
|
N
|
oting the warning of WikiLeaks’ legal advisor Geoffrey Robertson, he reports
that
Trump administration
preparations to prosecute Julian Assange on espionage charges involve the
creation of a ‘new legal theory’ that would curtail free speech protections under
the First Amendment of the US Constitution by arguing that these guarantees do
not extend to foreign journalists.
Defending Assange is to grapple with “a major free press issue.”
Julian Assange Case in Brief
Australian computer programmer, author, editor and founder of WikiLeaks,
Julian Paul Assange has been imprisoned in the Ecuadorian embassy in London,
England, since 2012; after having applied for and been granted political asylum
by Ecuador. Its leaders reasoned that
‘…as a consequence
of [Assange’s] determined defense to freedom of expression and freedom of
press… in any given moment, a situation may come where his life, safety or
personal integrity will be in danger’
|
E
|
cuador’s government granted political asylum to Assange “because of the
threat represented by the United States secret investigation against Assange and
several calls by American politicians for the assassination of Julian Assange.
Then-President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, announced on August 18, 2012,
“that Assange could stay at the Ecuadorian embassy indefinitely.”
The US persecution of Assange had begun after WikiLeaks released
material provided by Chelsea Manning, i.e., “the Collateral Murder video (April
2010), the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October 2010),
and CableGate (November 2010).”
As punishment, U.S. authorities began investigating WikiLeaks (and
Assange personally) “with a view toward prosecuting them under the Espionage
Act of 1917.” Then- US Attorney-General Eric Holder in 2010 confirmed “an
active, ongoing criminal investigation” into WikiLeaks; and further leaked
documents revealed a grand jury investigation and (denied by the US Government)
a “sealed indictment” of Assange.
|
D
|
ocuments reportedly leaked by Edward Snowden and published in 2014 “show
that the United States government had put Assange on the ‘2010 Manhunting
Timeline’” and in the same period US officials “urged (US) allies to open
criminal investigations into the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.” These leaked
documents also contained a “National Security Agency” (NSA) “proposal” to “designate
WikiLeaks a ‘malicious foreign actor’, thus giving cover or legitimacy to
increased surveillance of a press organization, WikiLeaks.
Three months after the new federal administration took office in
Washington, US officials told cable news “that they were preparing to file
formal charges against Assange.”
|
M
|
ore recent news reports indicate that after six years confinement in the
Ecuador embassy in Knightsbridge, under UK standing police guard for most of
those years and under US threat for all of those years (and continuing) — Britain’s
government may well be “devising a plan with Ecuador (now under new leadership)
to evict Julian Assange from the country’s London embassy.”
If Britain and Ecuador carry out an eviction, they may well be hammering another nail in the coffin of a free press and signing a death warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Sources
World Socialist Web Site “British and Ecuadorian authorities in talks
to evict Julian Assange from London embassy” Oscar Grenfell July 16, 2018
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/07/16/assa-j16.html
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange
News Corp Australia Network news.com.au “Britain is reportedly in high
level talks with Ecuador to evict Julian Assange from the London embassy” July
16, 2018 https://www.news.com.au/world/britain-is-reportedly-in-high-level-talks-with-ecuador-to-evict-julian-assange-from-the-london-embassy/news-story/5771e3cc9850eed390373fc2cced25b9
The current President of the Republic of Ecuador is Lenín
Moreno (May 24, 2017- ); his predecessor, Rafael Correa (January 15, 2007- May
24, 2017) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Ecuador
Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB - © All Rights
Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment