Two weeks ago, I emailed this very short letter to the Christchurch newspaper, The Press.
April 11, one week after Easter, was the second anniversary of the arrest of Julian Assange. He is still languishing in Belmarsh Prison.
Does anyone remember or even care, for that matter?
Actually someone does.
On Palm Sunday, the Pope sent Julian Assange a ‘kind, personal message’ , as reported by Assange’s financeé Stella Moris.
More messages need to be sent, not just to Assange but to President Biden to drop the espionage charge.
My letter wasn’t printed.
I find the silence from our media very disturbing. Many international journalists make the point that Julian Assange is being abused as a warning to other journalists, wherever they are. The UN Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer has said, “The progressively severe suffering inflicted on Mr. Assange, as a result of his prolonged solitary confinement, amounts not only to arbitrary detention, but also to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. Melzer is very concerned about Assange’s exposure to COVID-19.
Why is our media silent? For that matter, why the silence from our political, religious, academic and media élite?
Why haven’t NZ clergy joined the Pope in writing to Assange?
Is it fear? Or just indifference?
I have recently read an essay by Richard Flanagan titled The Australian Disease where he says,“Yet in recent times we seem to have lived through not so much a crisis of politics as a collapse of that most human attribute, empathy…”
In an even more recent letter to The Press, again not printed, I referred to another issue that keeps me awake at night, the abuse of Palestinian children by Israeli forces.
Years ago, Martin and I were fortunate to visit the Ramallah , West Bank , HQ of Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) . We met some of their lawyers, Palestinian and international. DCIP issued a report in December 2020, Isolated and Alone: Palestinian Children held in Solitary Confinement by Israeli Authorities for Interrogation.
DCIP has accused the Israeli regime of practising “solitary confinement, amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under international law norms.”
The report should be publicised and discussed.
The abuse of Palestinian children by the Israeli regime should be an international scandal. Yet the West looks the other way.
Again, questions need to be asked. Why the silence? It is fear? In this case it is fear of being accused of anti-Semitism, ie, the ‘Jeremy Corbyn’ treatment?
Or paraphrasing Richard Flanagan , does New Zealand society too, suffer from , ‘a collapse of empathy?’
Lois Griffiths is a Human Rights Activist.
People are afraid to be empathetic. If one feels the stirrings of empathy one must look closer at the suffering. To do this one must put their head above the parapet. The net is closing on all but the 1%. The last year has seen them sharpen their skills considerably and objection is crushed. The MSM are puppets of the 1%. Revolution will come.
I sent a post once to Mr Meurant, about a similar situation, that of the ‘Dreyfus affair’, I think there is much correlation regards ‘state’ intervention versus free speech,….
Dreyfus affair – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair
There are , eerily ,… many similarity’s. Except that Assange was not military personnel. Does it really matter?
I say, free , Juliann Assange.
Assange has learned the same lesson as Trump: Don’t cross the oligarchy
Right on the mark Lois.
Agree on all the points highlighted by you Lois. I cannot imagine the long term harm that has been done to Julian Assange’s mental and physical health. The silence from all quarters is deafening and shameful. The influence of the US is dominant and forever ugly.
Free Julian Assange.
Kia Kaha Lois.
Just briefly off the cuff. Its indeed a worrying trend that The Christchurch Press and other NZ media are increasingly suppressing free speech. I had a bit of a spat with the current Press editor who last year just out of the blue attacked me on two letters I had published the year before (NB!!) on the Salisbourgh Skripel poisonings case. Editors in my opinion should remain neutral. It appears that this new editor had been browsing through all my past letters over the years.
Last year this same editor altered a sentence in my letter on the Assange case. I complained to the NZ Media Council, who deliberated broadly on it in its adjudication, (Nov No.2960) which The Press refused to publish. Reason: “Not of Public interest” !!
The same is happening now with regards the Uighur affair in China’s Xinjiang province. Any letters expressing doubt are not being published. After sixty years of regularly writing to our media, I am now effectively marginalized from expressing my opinions.
I have lately been toying with the idea to write to the Governments suggesting to consider having its own page in all NZ newspapers, where people can express their views freely and unobstructed by newspaper editors. Its Freedom of expression that currently is being controlled by our CORPORATE media. That’s a very worrying development! I like to hear from people who do support this idea.
Great idea. ANYTHING to stop the stranglehold the uber wealthy elites have on the media and THUS information flow and molding opinions to THEIR needs.
Informed consent by Noam Chomskey comes to mind.
But LINO will do nothing, unless it’s to prop up the current BAU mania
He used his wealthy and powerful connections to evade trial for rape. When he redresses that I’ll care about him. Human Rights these days seems to be just another Industry – a vehicle for amassing personal fame and wealth, with high profile pro-bono cases worth a fortune in free advertising to the lawyer concerned.
Wrong. The “rape” case was just a pretext to get Assange extradited to the US. The way this brave man is now treated by the Establishment proves without a shadow of doubt how determined they are to conceal war crimes perpetrated by the US and NATO. It’s an assault on free speech and investigative journalism, which is becoming more and more obvious by the day..
Please do some reading up on the ‘bullsh1t’ rape allegations Catherine.
They were purely allegations. He was told he could leave the country as there was NO case to answer, when he voluntarily went to the police.
The USA then got the Swedish chief prosecutor fired and a puppet to replace her/him. Then the case was reopened. The girl who alleged rape and then withdrew it, publicly stated she was being pressured to change her story and raise another allegation, She PUBLICALLY refused.
Assange offered to be interviewed, BUT the prosecutor refused to travel to the UK to interview him, which is a regular ‘thing’. Assange offered to travel to Sweden to answer the allegations as long as they guaranteed NOT to send him to America afterwards. Sweden refused. i.e. it was PURELY a set up to get Assange into Sweden and then ship him off to the USA.
Standard spy agency strategy. Ruin someone’s credibility with lies if needed to con the public, LIKE YOU, into disliking the guy and thus NOT caring that he is being persicuted.
First they came for the gypsies, but I wasn’t a gypsy so I said nothing.
Then they came for the Jews, but I wasn’t Jewish so I said nothing.
Then they came for the gays, but I wasn’t a gay so I said nothing.
Then they came for the me and there was no one left to speak up for me…
Assange is ONLY guilty of telling the truth about a cruel, corrupt, immoral and bankrupt colonial power.
I believe Tony Benn said, to know who is in charge, ask who you’re not allowed to criticize.
What rape Cath.
Do your homework and don’t take the headlines as your guide.
Gaby On the contrary publishing war rimes SAVES lives, since the perpetrators can be hold accountable for their crimes and punished. Assange is doing what every investigative journalist with a grain of integrity and morality should be doing, but most of them are downright cowards only interested in their pay cheques. Assange reported the cold blooded murder of innocent civilians and two Reuter canaramen in the streets of Baghdad and listen careful about the foul language those basterds are using while committing their crime. He reported the torture of innocent men in AbuhGrai and Guantanamo Bay and much more. He makes the public aware what is kept secret. Visit my blog Contraviews ‘contraviewing.blogspot.com’ and go to post 270. The video can also be found on YouTube.
MSM got rid of most of their honourable journalists and mostly spout pro neoliberal, advertorials and woke speak instead. Nothing of any analysis or worth.
Journalists have been greatly effected by neoliberalism and the removal of ’employees’ in favour of contractors and gig workers in Media and the lack of protection for their own people have made the world a worse place full of greedy, amoral, rich individuals who control more and more, while pretending to be the opposite publicly using the new media to spread the messages.
“Journalism is a notoriously precarious profession. Downsizing and layoffs are almost routine, and many journalists find themselves bouncing between news organizations and periods of freelance work during their careers. Yet journalism is not the only precarious profession — for decades, scholars have been documenting the increasing precarity of employment.”
https://theconversation.com/journalism-jobs-are-precarious-financially-insecure-and-require-family-support-157012
As for Julian Assange, I care and so do many others, it is just the MSM don’t publish it.
Investigative journalism is not just part of the precariat economy, it’s now extremely dangerous and is allowing corruption and organised crime with political involvement, to flourish.
Malta car bomb kills Panama Papers journalist
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/malta-car-bomb-kills-panama-papers-journalist
2 journalists were murdered — but their investigations live on
https://www.dw.com/en/2-journalists-were-murdered-but-their-investigations-live-on/a-48241808
Jamal Khashoggi: All you need to know about Saudi journalist’s death
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45812399
Jill Dando
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Dando
Record number of journalists jailed worldwide
https://cpj.org/reports/2020/12/record-number-journalists-jailed-imprisoned/
In its annual global survey, the Committee to Protect Journalists found at least 274 journalists in jail in relation to their work on December 1, 2020, exceeding the high of 272 in 2016. China, which arrested several journalists for their coverage of the pandemic, was the world’s worst jailer for the second year in a row. It was followed by Turkey, which continues to try journalists free on parole and arrest new ones; Egypt, which went to great lengths to keep custody of journalists not convicted of any crime; and Saudi Arabia. Countries where the number of jailed journalists rose significantly include Belarus, where mass protests have ensued over the disputed re-election of the long-time president, and Ethiopia, where political unrest has degenerated into armed conflict.
This marks the fifth consecutive year that repressive governments have imprisoned at least 250 journalists. Lack of global leadership on democratic values – particularly from the United States, where President Donald Trump has inexhaustibly denigrated the press and cozied up to dictators such as Egyptian President Abdelfattah el-Sisi – has perpetuated the crisis. As authoritarians leveraged Trump’s “fake news” rhetoric to justify their actions – particularly in Egypt – the number of journalists jailed on “false news” charges steadily increased. This year, 34 journalists were jailed for “false news,” compared with 31 last year.
Within the United States, no journalists were jailed at the time of CPJ’s prison census, but an unprecedented 110 journalists were arrested or criminally charged in 2020 and around 300 were assaulted, the majority by law enforcement, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. At least 12 still face criminal charges, some of which carry jail terms. Observers told CPJ that the polarized political climate, militarized law enforcement, and vitriol toward the media combined during a wave of protests to eradicate norms that once afforded journalists police protection.
CPJ has published recommendations to the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden for restoring U.S. press freedom leadership globally, which include ensuring accountability for the domestic attacks on journalists as well as instructing diplomats abroad to attend trials of journalists and speak out in support of independent media. CPJ found the lack of trust in media in the U.S. to be particularly dangerous during the global pandemic.
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/help-julian-assange/
https://www.change.org/p/free-julian-assange-before-it-s-too-late-stop-usa-extradition
https://www.rt.com/news/519529-pope-assange-personal-message/
The Press 4/05/21
Old TV footage
Monday night (3/05) on TV News images were shown of what were purported to Uighur prisoners hald in captivity in China’s Xinjiang province. To my utmost surprise I remembered having seen exactly the same footage many, many years ago. Unfortunately I could not remember exactly in what context. Perhaps some readers who had also recognized the same pictures are able to enlighten me on its origins. China’s Xinjiang province in the west borders Pakistan and Afghanistan. ISIS has been as reported operating in Xinjiang province for some time. This might account for the current vicious Chinese ‘Cold War’ (Kissinger 4/05) propaganda in our western news outlets.
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