GUEST BLOG: Alan Preston – The Case of Julian Assange
Thanks to Radio New Zealand and to Bryan Crump for conducting these in-depth interviews ‘Julian Assange and the Future of the Press‘ (2020-11-02) and to Kim Hill for her interview with Jennifer Robinson ‘ Fighting for Assange, West Papua and Public Education (2021-04-21 ).
Julian Assange remains arbitrarily detained in solitary confinement in London’s Belmarsh maximum security Prison awaiting an appeal by the United States of America to extradite him to face trial for having published evidence of breaches of the Geneva Convention by U.S. and U.K. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta recently confirmed that ” Aotearoa New Zealand is a strong proponent of the international rules based system.” public awareness in this case, which is already having a chilling effect on the willingness of journalists to investigate and report on the excesses power, remains very low, with a consequent, commensurate lack of support for a political/diplomatic solution. i.e. the release of Julian Assange and investigation into evidence of breaches of the Geneva Convention.
To maintain a functioning, responsive, democracy, our journalists must be free to investigate and to publicise information on the behaviour of our institutions without fear of intimidation and reprisal.
For more background on the case of Julian Assange, go to : www.aotearoa4assange.nz
Here are some suggestions for other possible interviewees who have been involved in the case of Julian Assange.
Nils Melzer ( U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Contact : sr-torture@ohchr.org )
about to be released book : The Case of Julian Assange – interviewed by Randy Credico on 2021-05-03 on Live on the Fly by Randy Credico
Rebecca Vincent : Director of International Campaigns @ Reporters Without Borders
https://rsf.org/en/media-
https://rsf.org/en/media-
Rebecca Vincent : rvincent[at]rsf.org UK Bureau Director London :
See video on : https://www.dw.com/en/the-
See video on : https://www.dw.com/en/the-
Nicky Hager : A very good interview with Nicky Hager NZ investigative journalist talking about Julian Assange and Wikileaks with ( 0:21:46) Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM’s Earthwise program( Christchurch ) Nicky has met Julian Assange and has worked with Wikileaks. Nicky testified in support of Assange at the extradition trial in London
Published: 10/19/2020 9:00:00 PM Nicky Hager can be contacted by email to nhager@actrix.co.nz
John Shipton ( Julian Assange’s Father Contact possibilities : Northern Rivers NSW for Assange ( on Facebook ) – currently on a nationwide tour of Australia promoting his son’s release from Belmarsh Prison in London. Organisers are intending to take the tour to the United States on the 20th of June 2021.
Stella Moris-Smith Robertson ( Julian Assange’s partner Assange have two sons, Gabriel, born in 2017, and Max, born in 2019,
Kristinn Hrafnsson (Wikileaks Editor in Chief )
Noam Chomsky : https://chomsky.info/about/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
John Pilger : UK-based Australian journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker.
http://johnpilger.com/contact
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Scott Ludlum : former Greens MP from Western Australia..
Despair and Defiance – Senator Scott Ludlam in Conversation with Julian Assange
Contact @ scottludlam.org.au
When you are operating a criminal Ponzi scheme kept functioning in the short term via intimidation and brute force, you cannot allow the truth about your intimidation and brute force to be to be revealed, not can you allow the Ponzi nature of your financial system to be widely known.
Great post. Those who persecuted Julian Assange and the other journalists and whistleblowers will go down in history for what they did (or didn’t do).
Thank you Alan for writing about Julian Assange. I find the whole situation very disturbing .
Why is our mainstream media silent? Every issue of every newspaper should remind us how many days Assange has been incarcerated so far.
Every issue of every newspaper should shame the British and American governments.
The Assange incarceration and torture is an outrage I have never been able to understand. The absolute silence of big media is almost enough to send one across to the dark side, to begin to believe that there is indeed some sort of evil force governing it and to lose all faith in our systems of government.
Phillip Adams has been doing good work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhP4Vkj9-2k
“The absolute silence of big media ….” or try Matthew Alford: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/05/13/mainstream-outlet-media-refuses-say/.