Global journalists speak up for Julian Assange

Global journalists speak up for Julian Assange

“Julian Assange is the 'canary in the coal mine' for global democracy, and the public right to know.”

The public's right to know is entangled with 'freedom of expression' and press freedom, which is based in the principle that the free flow of information and minimal secrecy are the antidote to corruption. The public interest is to minimise corruption as it is pervasive and wasteful.

War is the most wasteful corruption and the antithesis of public interest.

Accordingly global journalists are joining the call by speaking up for Julian Assange:

https://speak-up-for-assange.org/journalists-speak-up-for-julian-assange/

We call on NZ journalists to speak up for Assange by signing. The opening passage states;

Julian Assange, founder and publisher of WikiLeaks, is currently detained in Belmarsh high-security prison in the United Kingdom and faces extradition to the United States and criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act. He risks up to 175 years imprisonment for his part in making public the leak of US military documents from Afghanistan and Iraq, and a trove of US State Department cables. The ‘War Diaries’ provided evidence that the US Government misled the public about activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and committed war crimes. WikiLeaks partnered with a wide range of media organizations worldwide that republished the War Diaries and embassy cables. The legal action underway against Mr Assange sets an extremely dangerous precedent for journalists, media organizations and the freedom of the press.

Principles underpinning journalism

NZ's Media Council states that participants in the journalism and media business are guided by a set of principles;

Preamble

The main objective of the New Zealand Media Council, established as an industry self-regulatory body in 1972, is to provide the public with an independent forum for resolving complaints involving the newspapers, magazines and the websites of such publications and other digital media. The Council is also concerned with promoting media freedom and maintaining the press in accordance with the highest professional standards.

An independent press plays a vital role in a democracy. The proper fulfilment of that role requires a fundamental responsibility to maintain high standards of accuracy, fairness and balance and public faith in those standards.

There is no more important principle in a democracy than freedom of expression. Freedom of expression and freedom of the media are inextricably bound. The print media is jealous in guarding freedom of expression, not just for publishers' sake but, more importantly, in the public interest. In dealing with complaints, the Council will give primary consideration to freedom of expression and the public interest.

Public interest is defined as involving a matter capable of affecting the people at large so that they might be legitimately interested in, or concerned about, what is going on, or what may happen to them or to others.

Given that the public interest is the defining rationale for the news media, the following might be of interest to participants in the industry;

Open letter to Australian PM Scott Morrison

A number of professionals including journalists have penned an open letter to the Australian Government seeking that PM Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne intervene with the UK Government to bring Assange back to Australia.

https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/open-letter-to-scott-morrison-regarding-julian-assange,13423

Extract from letter;

In accordance with its duty to every citizen, the Australian Government must act to defend the beleaguered rights of Julian Assange.

Political reaction has caused him to be sought by the U.S., where he faces an effective death sentence of 175 years in prison for his role in publishing its internal documents. These included U.S. State Department communications and army logs of the wars it led in Afghanistan and Iraq — the latter of which was declared illegal by the UN Secretary-General.

To rationalise this on account of Wikileaks’ impacts is to condone punishment for releasing facts disseminated by major outlets. This is incompatible with press freedom, which in times of peace and conflict alike, hinges on the assurance that it will not be traded off.

Free expression is integral to transparency, without which democracy is necessarily a treacherous illusion. Genuine security thus stands or falls with the availed freedom to render power transparent.

Conversely, the war of aggression and oppressive surveillance amount to fake security, like the silencing of those who expose them, which, as a rule, is on false pretexts.

In 2010, a U.S. official was told in a State Department briefing that the impact of the leaks “was embarrassing but not damaging”, according to Reuters.

Justice meted for War Crimes?

What is left unstated in the letter is that Australia under the leadership of the John Howard Liberal Party led coalition government was an eager participant in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

The reason the US State Department says; "that the impact of the leaks “was embarrassing but not damaging”" is because all that the Wikileaks leaks and disclosures did was confirm what many suspected was a bogus war and crusade on behalf of imperialism.

This is borne out in the huge rallies across the planet by people mobilising against empire's proposal to wage war and invade Iraq prior to March 2003.

Many saw the disaster that the West perpetrated on Afghanistan and many knew of the false charge against the Taliban party by the West that they harboured Osama bin Laden who the US accused for the 9/11 crime.

What Wikileaks has exposed is evidence of the evil acts of empire that might be used by those accusing war criminals for the prosecution of crimes against humanity and acts of aggression.

Aggression is the worst crime as defined by the Western Allies' trials of the German Nazi leaders and actors at Nuremberg following World War Two.

All Free Assange NZ want for Christmas is World Peace and a free Julian Assange.

Assange is the canary in the coal mine for the global democracy, the public right to know.

Greg Rzesniowiecki on behalf of Free Assange NZ

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