MayDay. The world needs a hero right now. People are urgently standing up for their rights and freedoms, asserting their rights and using their voices. Despite the Biden Administration saying “journalism is not a crime,” the fate of our most award winning journalist in the world is in America’s hands, and America is not responding to the millions of voices and letters, emails and phone calls received daily clammoring for Julian Assange’s release from detention in a UK maximum security prison.
MayDay. If Julian Assange is successfully convicted, then any journalist in the world could be arrested for similar reasons using the Espionage Act, for printing anything the U.S. claims to be state secrets. It will become a new customary practice for the U.S. to impose its laws on anyone in the world, regardless of whether that person has ever been in the United States or not.
On May 20, 2024, people are gathering outside the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand at 8 am London time, to hear the UK High Court’s decision whether to accept the (non) assurances given by the United States and extradite him immediately, to allow him to appeal, or to release him. The UK High Court asked the United States Department of Justice for assurances that Mr. Assange would have the protection of the First Amendment, would not be discriminated against due to his nationality and would not be given the death penalty. The response issued by the United States was that “a sentence of death will neither be sought nor imposed on Assange,” assuring that he will not be “tried for a death-eligible offense” and that Mr. Assange, an Australian citizen, can “raise and seek” a defense under the First Amendment, but cautioned that “a decision as to the applicability of the First Amendment is exclusively within the purview of the U.S. Courts.” (1)
The U.S. is not willing to assure Assange and his family of his free speech rights, but is instead saying that he is welcome to try to get protection from a U.S. court. Assange has already spent 5 years in detainment while an endless legal back and forth continues between the U.S. and the UK. Assange’s wife Stella responded with a statement,“The U.S. has limited itself to blatant weasel words claiming that Julian can ‘seek to raise’ the first amendment if extradited,” she said. “The diplomatic note does nothing to relieve our family’s extreme distress about his future – his grim expectation of spending the rest of his life in isolation in U.S. prison for publishing award-winning journalism. The Biden administration must drop this dangerous prosecution before it is too late.”(2)
Numerous international organizations have spoken out against the America’s stand against giving journalist Julian Assange free press and human rights protections. Julia Hall from Amnesty International says that U.S. diplomatic assurances are inherently unreliable. It promises to do something and then reserves the right to break the promise, and “The strategy is to keep Assange detained as long as possible. It’s a kind of death by a thousand cuts.”(3)
The concern is that by imposing the Espionage Act, a U.S. law, on a non-American journalist that published on foreign soil, but then unwilling to give that same journalist U.S. free press First Amendment protections, the U.S. is showing prejudice based on nationality.
Even more concerning are the implications for journalism worldwide. If the U.S. is successful in an Assange conviction, it will alter the common practices of every journalist, and there will be many more arrests until every journalist complies with only printing state approved information. “What this diplomatic note really means:” Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton tweets out, “Any Publisher globally is fair game. No 1st Amendment protection. Publish and Perish.”(4)
Urgent calls from journalists worldwide are being made: “We the undersigned Europeans unions and associations of journalists, join the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in calling on the U.S. government to drop all charges against Julian Assange and allow him to return home to his wife and children. We are gravely concerned about the impact of Assange’s continued detention on media freedom and the rights of all journalists globally. We urge European governments to actively work to secure Julian Assange’s release.” Many world leaders have declared to the United States that Julian Assange should be given his freedom and that free speech must be upheld. Recently, the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, called for the immediate release of Julian Assange saying that he is hopeful that this will be achieved, because it would be an act of justice of the highest level. A good demonstration to the world that freedom of expression, demonstration, and freedom of the press are respected.
With the harshest stories of Assange put out by the media, painting him as someone not worthy of the respect of upholding his human rights, thereby manipulating public opinion negating any effort to challenge U.S. prosecution of this award-winning journalist. Whether it was out of the embarrassment they suffered, or to discourage any other journalist from doing investigative reporting on their war crimes, the U.S. was not open to hearing from any of those world leaders or international organizations. While all this goes on, Julian Assange sits in a 6’ x 12’ box for 23 hours a day (5), with only some books for companionship.
In June of 2022, the mother of Julian Assange, Christine made an impassioned plea for her son’s freedom. “I respectfully make my plea directly to the parties involved… after 11 ½ years in pre-trial detention, and with legal proceedings dragging on with no end in sight, it has become clear to all following that this case is political and requires a diplomatic solution. When people become very invested in winning at all costs, the collateral damage is truth, justice and humanity. I implore all sides to take a step back from the heat of the fight for a moment, and to reflect. I ask all sides to consider a diplomatic solution. Negotiating an end to conflict is a normal part of civilized existence, within a marriage, the boardroom, long-running legal cases, and disputes within nation states. In the spirit of bringing this to an end, both sides will need to give a little. Julian has been detained long enough to satisfy any needs for revenge from those pursuing prosecution. He has suffered enough to satisfy those wishing to make him a symbol for press freedom. I beseech those who say they really care about Julian to put his needs as a suffering human-being first. And I have faith that with good will on both sides a resolution can be reached. Thank you for hearing my plea.”
What has and hasn’t been covered of this whole story in the legacy media is a crime. What gets repeated is the same initial misleading misinformation painting Julian Assange as an errant hacker helping Manning steal government secrets, but nothing could be further from the truth. That is where the public has been done such a grave disservice by lack of truthful reporting in the media. The public has missed out on learning about the Assange family’s fight for Julian’s life, out of their love for him. But more importantly, because the media is not reporting this story accurately, most of the American public is being caught off-guard and unprepared for the fight to uphold their First Amendment rights in America. The world has missed out on this story, one that is so very important to our humanity, as human beings with hearts that beat. Claim humanity and fight for the freedom of Julian Assange.
2. https://assangedefense.org/hearing-coverage/u-s-continues-its-pursuit-of-julian-assange/
4. https://twitter.com/GabrielShipton/status/1780705737959940164
5. https://twitter.com/Infrarot_Medien/status/1759916419112722844
5. https://twitter.com/Stella_Assange/status/1474726659806871553