Don't shoot the Messenger

14/09/2022

The charges against Julian Assange should never have been brought...

This action potentially opens the door for journalists anywhere in the world to be extradited to the US for exposing information deemed classified by Washington.

The use of the Espionage Act to prosecute him should be seen for what it is – an attack on the freedom of the press;
“soliciting, obtaining, and then publishing classified information ... [is] what good national security and investigative journalists do every day”

Editorial: Priti Patel could have turned down the American request. By not doing so she dealt a blow to press freedom

28/08/2022

"Yesterday afternoon WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange filed grounds of appeal against extradition to the United States in the UK’s High Court.
The lodging begins the latest stage in a protracted legal battle over Assange’s prospective dispatch to the US, where he faces 175 years imprisonment in a supermax facility for publishing true information, including material exposing American war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Lawyers for Wikileaks founder, who is indicted on 17 espionage charges in US, say he faces persecution for his ‘political opinions’

21/05/2022

Julian Assange's wife Stella Assange / Moris with the legendary German investigative journalist Günther Wallraff in Cologne, Germany, will receive the 2022 Günther Wallraff Prize awarded to Julian Assange.
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Günther Wallraff Prize 2022 goes to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

Investigative journalist and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange receives this year’s Günther Wallraff Prize.
In the name of Germany’s best-known investigative journalist, this award recognizes critical journalism and civil courage.
The prize will be awarded during the 6th Cologne Forum for Journalism Criticism, which will take place tomorrow at Deutschlandradio’s broadcasting centre. Human rights activist and lawyer Stella Moris accepts the award on behalf of her husband Julian Assange.
“Julian Assange has made a significant investigative contribution to the news by revealing classified footage and text of possible US war crimes.
In his work with the Internet platform WikiLeaks, Assange has always accepted immense reprisals in favor of reporting. The relentless pursuit of the investigative journalist Assange by the USA with the threat of extradition now poses a threat to free reporting in general,” was the jury’s reasoning.

29/06/2021

Now one of the main witnesses in that extradition case has come forward to admit he made false claims against Assange [in] exchange [for] immunity from prosecution. The revelation came in an interview with the convicted Icelandic hacker “Siggi” Thordarson for a detailed article published by the Icelandic biweekly Stundin. It suggests the U.S. Justice Department collaborated with Thordarson to generate the indictment for Assange that was submitted to the British courts.

One of the main witnesses in Julian Assange’s extradition case has admitted he made false claims against Assange in exchange for immunity from prosecution, a bombshell revelation that could have a major impact on the WikiLeaks founder’s fate. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if brought to...

15/06/2021

What made a Special Rapporteur on Torture work on the Assange case and write a book on it?

Professor of International Law, Nils Melzer; UN Special Rapporteur on Torture; Human Rights Chair, Geneva Academy, says: "the treatment of Julian Assange leaves him speechless."

In an in-depth interview with Il Fatto Quotidiano, Nils Melzer discusses his investigation on the WikiLeaks founder, which has made him speak out as a whistleblower and raise an alarm on this case and its implications: “We have already created a parallel world of secret services that controls everything”.

"I reported back to the involved governments by the end of May. I was convinced Julian Assange had been deliberately persecuted and kept in a legal limbo in Sweden, in the US, in the UK and everywhere to put him under pressure and to make him crack. It was done very publicly, in order to make an example of him, to scare other investigative journalists. The message was: If you expose our dirty secrets, this is what is going to happen to you, and no one can protect you. We can violate your rights every day the way we want and no one can do anything about it."

"It’s not that the Swedish, the US and UK intelligence services cooperate sometimes; they do it systematically, 24/7, and on so many fronts that it can no longer be disentangled; they are deep in bed with each other."

In an in-depth interview with Il Fatto Quotidiano, Nils Melzer discusses his investigation on the WikiLeaks founder, which has made him speak out as a whistleblower and raise an alarm on this case and its implications: “We have already created a parallel world of secret services that controls ever...

25/03/2021

– WATCH: Australian parliamentarian Julian Hill MP echoes bipartisan calls for the immediate end to extradition proceedings against Julian Assange:
"Assange would be buried alive in the US Justice system"
"Australia must do the right thing & save ​, this case is inherently political. The treatment of Assange corrupts our alliances with the US & makes a mockery of the UK's justice system and international law." | Julian Hill MP


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01/02/2021

"Amnesty International strongly opposes any possibility of Julian Assange being extradited or sent in any manner to the USA. There, he faces a real risk of serious human rights violations including possible detention conditions that would amount to torture and other ill-treatment...
Julian Assange’s publication of disclosed documents as part of his work with Wikileaks should not be punishable as this activity mirrors conduct that investigative journalists undertake regularly in their professional capacity."

Julian Assange’s publication of disclosed documents as part of his work with Wikileaks should not be punishable.