Julian Assange, hunted for years, had become an enemy of the reason of state of Washington and its Western vassals, because he had the courage to denounce the other side of a scene that was as criminal as it was liberticidal. Like other whistleblowers, persecuted, hunted, like Edward Snowden, still forced into exile in Moscow. With the Assange affair, “it is the very future of journalism that is at stake”, recently noted Rebecca Vincent, one of the leaders of Reporters Without Borders.
The Australian whistleblower and founder of WikiLeaks, aged 53 and still recovering, was released from prison in the United Kingdom and found freedom on June 25 after pleading guilty in an American court, the epilogue of a long fight. He was fighting not to be handed over to American justice, which is pursuing him for having made public, from 2010, more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Among these documents is a video showing civilians, including two journalists from the Reuters agency, killed by fire from an American combat helicopter in Iraq in July 2007. Targeted by 18 charges, he theoretically faced up to to 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act.
This public hearing is being held while the Council of Europe is due to debate, on Wednesday October 2, an investigation report on “the implications of his detention and its wider effects on human rights, particularly freedom of journalism.”
Humanity is under attack, defend it!
Your newspaper has been the subject of 5 SLAPP procedures over the past year. Obviously, the truth is disturbing. The forces of money and reactionaries seek to silence us. They won’t make it. Thanks to you!
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