Today was a dark day for global press freedom. The UK Home secretary Priti Patel has signed the extradition to send Australian journalist Julian Assange to the US, the same country who reportedly plotted to assassinate him, and has charged him for publishing leaked evidence of their war crimes. The Guardian’s Editorial says the decision ‘ought to worry anyone who cares about journalism and democracy.’
Every major Human Rights group has called for Assange’s release. The International Federation of Journalists, representing over 600,000 journalists tweeted ‘The UK decision to allow the extradition of Assange is vindictive and a real blow to media freedom. He has simply exposed issues that were in the public interest and Patel’s failure to acknowledge this is shameful and sets a terrible precedent.’
The New Zealand Government can no longer remain silent on this case. A4A’s Matt Ó Branáin asked, ‘what will our government’s position be when it’s a New Zealand investigative journalist being imprisoned or extradited? What will this total lack of accountability mean the next time the US asks us to send our troops to die in another war?’. The Guardian warns this ‘potentially opens the door for journalists anywhere in the world to be extradited to the US for exposing information deemed classified by Washington.’ We cannot allow a legal precedent to be set that the US can throw anyone, anywhere in jail for revealing state crimes.
Aotearoa 4 Assange’s Matt Ó Branáin said: ‘We reiterate our call for PM Jacinda Ardern to stand with Australian PM Albanese’s calls for our allies the UK and US to bring an end to this, and bring Assange home.’
Very true. Even the very milquetoast centre-left French leader, Mélenchon, has made his position very clear on this. If Ardern wants to pretend she isn’t a right-wing slave to American foreign policy, there is only one position available.
I think Ms Ardern’s meeting with President Biden showed very clearly that she is in the pocket of her “like minded.. traditional partner”. She would not take a stand against the UK or US even if decided to kill the first born of every independent journalist on the planet. She will support them in their most immoral and vile offences against human rights and common decency. Asking Ardern to take a moral stand on any issue at all is just whistling in the wind.
If you check out Assange’s role in the campaign to malign Seth Rich — and which may have had the effect of boosting Trump’s chances in the 2016 presidential election — you may find yourselves a little less sympathetic to him.
See these links:
From Rolling Stone in 2019:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/will-julian-assange-and-wikileaks-finally-tell-the-truth-about-seth-rich-918946/
And on NPR (National Public Radio in the USA) last week:
http://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1104511732/fox-news-seth-rich-murder
PS to mine: Or see the Netflix film about this, in their series “Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies, and the Internet”
Oh, and also Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Seth_Rich
And actually, several other sites.
“WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has been treated “very unfairly” to the shame of the entire world, and Mexico is willing to take him in, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters on Tuesday. He said he would bring up Assange’s case with his US counterpart Joe Biden when they meet in July. ” RT.com
Meanwhile, silence from Albanese and Ardern, No surprises there. Both owe allegiance to some woman living in a big house in London. Both gutless Labour Party leaders in name only.
of course patel signs she’s a peevish vengeful little shit with the morals of a sewer rat.
…and that’s her positive attributes.