Julian Assange speaks

Last week Julian Assange spoke publicly for the first time since his release from solitary confinement at Belmarsh Prison, saying ‘I am free today after years of incarceration because I plead guilty to journalism.’

The WikiLeaks founder was speaking at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg, France. He noted how surreal it was to stand before the representatives of 46 nations and 700 million people after years of confinement in maximum security.

‘The experience of isolation for years in a small cell is difficult to convey,’ he said. ‘It strips away one’s sense of self, leaving only the raw essence of existence.’

Mr Assange explained he was only a free man because of the combined efforts of thousands of people over fourteen years, none of which should have been necessary. He said that in his case justice was now impossible, because of the deal he was forced to make with the US government.

‘I am not free today because the system worked,’ he emphasised. ‘I plead guilty to seeking information from a source. I plead guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I plead guilty to informing the public what that information was. I did not plead guilty to anything else.

‘I hope my testimony today can serve to highlight the weaknesses of the existing safeguards and to help those whose cases are less visible but who are equally vulnerable.’

Truth undermined

Mr Assange said the US government had crossed the Rubicon by internationally criminalising journalism, creating a ‘chilled climate for freedom of expression’.

He explained that the WikiLeaks dream had been to educate people about how the world works, in order to bring about something better.

‘Knowledge empowers us to hold power to account and to demand justice where there is none. We obtained and published truths about tens of thousands of hidden casualties of war and other unseen horrors, about programs of assassination, rendition, torture and mass surveillance.

‘We revealed not just when and where these things happened but frequently the policies, the agreements, and structures behind them.’ Journalism, in other words.

WikiLeaks most famous leak was ‘Collateral Murder’, the military helicopter footage of an American Apache crew blowing to pieces Iraqi journalists and their rescuers. These shocking images served to educate the public regarding classified policies about the use of lethal force against civilians in Iraq. Mr Assange says, ‘Forty years of my potential 175-year sentence was for obtaining and releasing these policies.’

He explained that while President Obama commuted the sentence of the WikiLeaks source, Chelsea Manning, President Trump’s ‘two wolves in MAGA hats’, Mike Pompeo and William Barr, had subsequently launched a ‘campaign of retribution’ against WikiLeaks, which included plans to kidnap and assassinate Assange, the targeting of his wife and infant son, and threats to the sovereignty of European nations. In a reversal of the usual situation, Manning, the source, was ‘forced to testify against their journalist’.

Assange went on to say, ‘When powerful nations feel entitled to target individuals beyond their borders, those individuals do not stand a chance unless there are strong safeguards in place and a state willing to enforce them. Without them, no individual has a hope of defending themselves against the vast resources that a state aggressor can deploy.’

He said the US government had asserted a dangerous and illogical new global legal position, where only US citizens have free speech rights. Europeans and other nationalities have no such rights, but the US claims its Espionage Act applies to them regardless of where they are.

‘I was formally convicted, by a foreign power, for asking for, receiving, and publishing truthful information about that power while I was in Europe,’ said Mr Assange.

‘The fundamental issue is simple: journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs. Journalism is not a crime; it is a pillar of a free and informed society.’

As he made clear, the criminalisation of news gathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere. Julian Assange’s complete speech is available to read here.

Truss says journalism is the problem

On the weekend, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, the woman whose tenure was famously shorter than the shelf life of lettuce, appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Brisbane to flog her new book and have a go at journalism as well.

According to Truss, ‘a red mist of socialism has descended on the Western world’.

Apparently her demise had nothing to do with gross incompetence, the disdain of her colleagues and her record-breaking unpopularity with the British public, but was instead the fault of ‘left-wing bureaucracy’ and state media outlets, which she said should be defunded.

Calling out the ABC and BBC in particular, these comments drew claps and cheers from the crowd, which included the usual ghoulish suspects, and was lovingly reported on Sky News.

Of course the real reason people like Liz Truss don’t like journalism, even in its emasculated state media form, is that the weaponisation of lies and misinformation by the extreme right has become their main political strategy, from Canberra to London to Washington, and beyond.

The truth-telling of real journalists like Julian Assange has never been needed more.

Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning film-maker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.