Press Freedom

Julian Assange’s Grand Inquisitor

February 24, 2024 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! Appeal, Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK), Wikileaks

London - The prosecution for the U.S., which is seeking to deny Julian Assange’s appeal of an extradition order, begun by the Trump administration and embraced by the Biden administration, grounded its arguments on Wednesday in the dubious affidavits filed by a U.S. federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, Gordon Kromberg. The charges articulated by Kromberg — often false — to make the case for extradition did not fly with the two High Court judges, Jeremy Johnson and Dame Victoria Sharp, who are overseeing Julian’s final appeal in the British courts.

Government Gag Rules Keep Vital Information From The Public

February 24, 2024 Kathryn Foxhall, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Educate! CDC, COVID-19, Journalism, Media, Pandemic, Press Freedom

Reporting on the government institution charged with saving us from the Covid pandemic was restricted enough to leave real holes in what we knew. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—like many other organizations these days, public and private—prohibits its employees from speaking freely to reporters. At many entities, the rules mean staff members cannot have any unauthorized contact with reporters, with media inquiries often redirected to a public information office (PIO). The forced notification of the higher-ups is quite enough to silence many employees about anything that would displease the bosses.

Stella Assange: ‘The World Is Watching’ Assange Extradition Hearing

February 23, 2024 Ross Domoney and Nadia Peridot, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK)

The world is watching. And finally, there’s a realization about what this is really about, which is an attack on the truth, an attack on the public’s right to know. And a country’s attempt to further their impunity and their coverups and continue to kill with impunity, without the threat of a media that will scrutinize them, of a public that will demand change. That cannot stand. Everything turns on the outcome of this case. Whether states can criminalize journalism and put journalists in prison like they’ve been doing in the UK with an Australian citizen; a publisher who’s won many, many awards for his journalism and they’ve stuck him in the deepest, darkest hole of the UK prison system.

Day Two: US Reinforces Grand Assange Deception

February 23, 2024 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Extradition, Journalism, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK)

On the second and final day of Julian Assange’s High Court hearing, barristers for the United States wove a delusory tale in which journalism is espionage, First Amendment rights are stripped from foreigners on U.S. soil and a government hunting a dissident journalist who revealed its secret crimes is lauded as a beacon of democracy. However, outside the courthouse on a street called The Strand; and with human rights and press freedom organizations, presidents, prime ministers, and parliaments and with millions of ordinary citizens around the world, this false construct the United States seeks to impose on the world is failing.

Support For Julian Assange As He Fights Extradition To The US

February 22, 2024 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Resist! Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK), Wikileaks

There is no benefit to the people for Julian Assange to be extradited or to be charged, none whatsoever. He should be free, he should never have been forced into the Ecuadorian embassy. And by the way, he always made it clear that he would go to Sweden and face those charges against him if he was guaranteed not to be turned over to the U.S. And his fears were well founded, as we now see. He exposed corruption, political corruption, financial corruption, and that is what makes him an enemy of powerful people, and a friend to people around the world. So I support Julian Assange.

US Obfuscates And Misrepresents On Second Day Of Assange Hearings

February 22, 2024 People's Dispatch. Educate! Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK), Wikileaks

On the second and final day of the crucial appeal permission hearing for Julian Assange, the US repeated long-debunked and discredited theories and allegations. On Wednesday, February 21, the court began by hearing the submission by the prosecution representing the US government. The prosecution team led by Claire Dobbin and Joel Smith presented arguments that obfuscated facts and misrepresented both the prosecution against Assange and the nature of work done by WikiLeaks. The US opened with unsubstantiated claims that Assange’s publishing of the classified documents exposed several contacts, putting them in harm’s way especially those in war zones and under oppressive regimes.

Assange Appeal Hearing Plagued By Media Access Issues

February 22, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Resist! Journalism, Julian Assange, Media, Press Freedom, Wikileaks

In a high-profile extradition case widely regarded as a threat to global press freedom, administrators of the United Kingdom’s courts have repeatedly shown that they are incapable and unwilling to ensure open justice for journalists. All reporters outside of England and Wales (including this reporter) were barred from accessing the audio-visual link for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s hearing, where he urged the British High Court of Justice grant permission to appeal extradition to the United States. Several journalists who traveled internationally to cover proceedings have been seated in a section of the courtroom that makes doing their job practically impossible.

Julian Assange’s Day In Court

February 22, 2024 Chris Hedges, Consortium News. Educate! CIA, Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK), Wikileaks

By the afternoon on Tuesday the video link, which would have allowed Julian Assange to follow his final U.K. appeal to prevent his extradition, had been turned off. Julian, his attorneys said, was too ill to attend, too ill even to follow the court proceedings on a link, although it was possible he was no longer interested in sitting through another judicial lynching. The rectangular screen, tucked under the black wrought iron bars that enclosed the upper left-hand corner balcony of the courtroom where Julian would have been caged as a defendant, was perhaps a metaphor for the emptiness of this long and convoluted judicial pantomime.

Day X Protests To Free Assange

February 19, 2024 Assange Defense. Resist! Extradition, Journalism, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, Wikileaks

Day X is here: February 20-21, imprisoned publisher Julian Assange returns to court in London for his final bid to appeal his extradition to the United States where he would face life in prison for publishing truthful information in the public interest. Human rights leaders and civil liberties groups around the world are again warning that the prosecution of Assange threatens journalism everywhere. In this month alone, a UN Special Rapporteur, leading press freedom groups, over 35 U.S. law professors, and the Australian Parliament have called for an end to the prosecution of Julian Assange.

Julian Assange’s Final Appeal

February 19, 2024 Chris Hedges, Consortium News. Educate! Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK), Wikileaks

If Julian Assange is denied permission to appeal his extradition to the United States before a panel of two judges at the High Court in London this week, he will have no recourse left within the British legal system. His lawyers can ask the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for a stay of execution under Rule 39, which is given in “exceptional circumstances” and “only where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm.” But it is far from certain that the British court will agree. It may order Julian’s immediate extradition prior to a Rule 39 instruction or may decide to ignore a request from the ECtHR to allow Julian to have his case heard by the court.

Australia Approves Motion Urging Britain To Return Julian Assange

February 14, 2024 Doug Cunningham, Yahoo News. Resist! Australia, Britain, Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK)

Australia's prime minister and federal members of Parliament approved a motion Wednesday to return Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to Australia. MP Andrew Wilkie introduced the motion arguing that Assange should be freed from a British prison where he has spent nearly five years and returned to Australia as Britain's High Court will hear Assange's appeal next week against his extradition to the United States on espionage charges. "It will send a very powerful political signal to the British government and to the U.S. government that the British government should not entertain the idea of Mr. Assange being extradited to the U.S.," Wilkie said Wednesday in parliament, noting Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if convicted on the U.S. charges.

Dear Mr. High Commissioner: Help Free Assange

February 10, 2024 Christophe Peschoux, Consortium News. Resist! Extradition, Human Rights, Julian Assange, Legal System, Press Freedom, Wikileaks

On 20-21 February, a High Court in London will decide Julian Assange’s fate: freedom or death. Two judges will decide whether the WikiLeaks founder will still be able to lodge an ultimate appeal, or will end his days in an American jail. Mr. Assange has committed no crime. His only fault is to have revealed some of the crimes of the powerful of our time. Lèse majesté crime! American wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have destroyed millions of lives and ruined these countries for generations to come. No one has been prosecuted. On the contrary, these crimes have been covered up with impunity in the United States. And yet Mr. Assange is being punished for having published evidence of some of them. Political justice.

Assange’s Very Life Is At Stake

February 5, 2024 Mary Kostakidis, Consortium News. Educate! Extradition, health, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK), Wikileaks

In Julian Assange’s extradition case, Magistrate Judge Venessa Baraitser determined he would not survive imprisonment in a U.S. Supermax facility – that he is very likely to commit suicide. One of the final witnesses in the 4 week extradition trial in 2020 was an American lawyer whose client Abu Hamza was held in ADX Colorado where Julian is likely to be sent. Abu Hamza has no hands. He was extradited from the U.K. following assurances by the U.S. that the prison system was able to deal with the special requirements of such a prisoner. His lawyer testified that despite assurances he would not be placed in total isolation, that is indeed where he was kept, under Special Administrative Measures, and the U.S. had also failed to delivered on other undertakings to protect his human rights – he did not have a toilet in his cell he could operate – he was stripped of all dignity, contrary to guarantees.

Journalists File Suit Against Gag Rules In Public Agencies

February 5, 2024 Kathryn Foxhall, PR Office Censorship. Resist! Gag Rules, Journalism, Legal System, Press Freedom

In apparently unprecedented legal actions, two separate suits have been filed for journalists against public agencies for having gag rules prohibiting employees or contractors from speaking to reporters. Previously, similar suits on employee speech to journalists have been filed and won by parties including unions or employers. Many people, including attorneys, have thought that journalists could not file such actions for themselves. However, in August investigative journalist Brittany Hailer sued the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh for allegedly having such speech restrictions even while a number of deaths occurred in the facility.

Press Freedom Advocates Demand Police Drop Charges Against Journalist

January 30, 2024 Jeremy Appel, Alberta Native News. Resist! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Journalism, Legal System, Police, Press Freedom

Press freedom advocates joined together on Jan. 29 to call for the dropping of criminal charges against Indigenous journalist Brandi Morin, who was arrested while covering Edmonton police’s raid on an inner city homeless tent encampment. Morin, a former Alberta Native News contributor, was charged with obstructing a peace officer on Jan. 10 while filming the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) and City of Edmonton’s final raid of an eight-encampment sweep on assignment for the online news outlet Ricochet. If convicted, Morin could face up to two years in prison. Morin was arrested while filming the dismantling of the Indigenous-led 95th Street and Rowland Road encampment, which had been cordoned off with police tape.

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