Jo Faith, Sunrise Beach
The Assange No Extradition campaign is vital for upholding and fighting for Assange, a political prisoner, who took the risk to expose the war crimes of the imperialist west. This act in turn has globally affected the rights of journalists.
A global petition seeking a royal pardon has 300,000 signatures. He’s been removed from solitary confinement, had access to letters, and his father can visit him more.
There’s a silent hero who is back in prison. Chelsea Manning acted alone when she released information of war crimes to Assange. They did not plot this act. At a packed meeting at Sydney Opera House she warned that we should focus our gaze on the terrorism in our immediate environment. To date, there appears to exist no campaign to free Chelsea Manning.
If we look deeper into the humanism of Assange and Chelsea Manning we can view the activation of ‘conscience’. They symbolise the right to activism for frontline protectors, like Quakers, who’ve struggled for a greater humanism. Assange and Manning are legally recognised under Article 9 of The European Convention of Human Rights, which upholds ‘the right to freedom of Conscience’.
They are prisoners of conscience reviled by the political elite.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
