Tag: free speech

PACE Autumn Session | Debate on the Detention and Conviction of Julian Assange

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PACE debate recorded the day after the first public statement of Julian Assange since his release from Belmarsh prison.

More information below the video [edited for start time]. Aired Oct. 2nd 2024:

Julian Assange, accompanied by his wife Stella, took part in a parliamentary hearing on his detention and conviction – and their chilling effect on human rights – on 1 October 2024 ahead of a full plenary debate on this topic by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) due the following day.

In his first public remarks since his release from detention at Belmarsh Prison in the UK four months ago, Mr Assange told parliamentarians: “I want to be totally clear. I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today because after years of incarceration I pleaded guilty to journalism. I pleaded guilty to seeking information from a source, and I pleaded guilty to informing the public what that information was.”

He added: “It’s good to be back. It’s good to be amongst people who – as we say in Australia – who give a damn. It’s good to be amongst friends.”

The hearing was organised by the Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in the framework of a report on this topic by Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC). Wikileaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson also took part.

In a recent draft resolution, based on Ms. Ævarsdóttir’s report, the committee expressed deep concern at Mr. Assange’s harsh treatment, warned of its “chilling effect” and called on the United States, a Council of Europe observer state, to investigate the alleged war crimes and human rights violations disclosed by him and Wikileaks.

The committee also said it considers that the “disproportionately severe charges” brought against him by the US authorities, as well as the heavy penalties foreseen under the Espionage Act for engaging in acts of journalism, fall within the requirements set out in a 2012 Assembly resolution on the definition of a political prisoner.

On Wednesday 2 October, the Assembly – which brings together parliamentarians from the 46 Council of Europe member states – will debate and vote on the committee’s draft resolution. Mr. Assange is expected to be present in the public gallery to watch the debate.

Courtesy of Consortium News, Creative Commons Attribution.

PACE hearing on Julian Assange’s detention and conviction and their chilling effects on human rights | w/transcript

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Watch the testimony given by Julian Assange to a parliamentary hearing of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg – the first time he has spoken publicly since his release.

On Wednesday 2 October, the Assembly is due to hold a plenary debate and vote on his detention and conviction – and its chilling effects on human rights – based on a report by Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC). Mr. Assange is expected to be watching from the public gallery.

UPDATE: Read the testimony and QnA transcript from Julian’s appearance, courtesy of Consortium News: Assange: ‘My Naivete Was Believing in the Law’

JOHN PILGER: Assange Arrest a Warning from History – Consortiumnews

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via johnpilger.com on FB: “The shocking arrest of Julian Assange carries a warning for all who, as Oscar Wilde wrote, “sew the seeds of discontent [without which] there would be no advance towards civilisation”. The warning is explicit towards journalists. What happened to the founder and editor of WikiLeaks can happen to you on a newspaper, you in a TV studio, you on radio, you running a podcast…”

Real journalism is being criminalized by thugs in plain sight, says John Pilger. Dissent has become an indulgence. And the British elite has abandoned its last imperial myth: that of fairness and justice. By John Pilger

Source: JOHN PILGER: Assange Arrest a Warning from History – Consortiumnews

“Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.” – Mark Twain
If you want to read a book, go the library – if you want to read a GREAT book, read one from a banned list.  Celebrate Banned Books Week by reading some!  [BONUS: It pisses off fascists!]

The Politics of No Choice

TRC contributor, Tesha Miller 

US Presidential campaigns are now in full swing and the curtains are propped wide open to reveal the sideshow spectacle which has come to represent her politics.  Come one, come all!  Tune out to the real issues of the day, like the slow and agonizing death of the middle class and the lack of a committed political body willing to lift a finger to stop the bleed-out of the people’s wealth.  Let’s not look at the costs, moral and financial, involved in empire’s endless rampage against oil rich nations, or the ethical morass which our tarnished state now represents to the rest of the world.  And by all means, don’t dare utter a word about the promise of yet another QE3 by Bernanke, which will further saddle the nation with greater debt and which America’s working class will ultimately be forced to pay; even as they proclaim the dire need for austerity. Oh no!  This election is about the cults of personalities and about their hollow promises of change. 
If you’ve made it this far and haven’t been purged from the voting lists, due to political affiliation, or still actually believe in the lessor of evil politics, you likely still believe that America is a democratic state, because you get the November privilege of casting a vote.  Maybe you’re mesmerized by the endless campaign messages splattered across your TV screen which are approved by some smiling talking head and you find yourself hoping to God that the entire nation isn’t going to catch fire, just like Rome; even though you smell the burning and feel the heat on your neck. Its making you sweat. 
You force yourself to believe that the system still works because if it doesn’t, it means that you actually have to do something about it, or admit that you’re a coward and are going to get exactly what you deserve.  After all, they showed us what’s coming for the troublemakers, we got front row tickets to the preview; if you take to the streets, like OWS, you get beaten by police in riot gear and jailed without charge.  And should you make enough noise…you might even get paid a visit by the FBI and put on a domestic terrorist list.  
So you play your role in the entire process and pick a side, with a held nose, and debate with your friends and neighbors from the prescribed talking points.  You steer clear of the messy details: the ever widening reaches of the police state, the loss of basic civil rights, the mounting racial tensions, corporate personhood, systemic corruption, environmental carnage, inequality, soaring incarceration rates, failing infrastructure, constant warfare and the end of the American dream. 
I am here to tell you that without your direct involvement in the process that the middle class is going to be a concept reserved for history books.  I am here to tell you that the US is going to continue down the pathway of western hegemony till an economic collapse, or much of the world is a war torn wasteland.  Finally, I’m here to tell you that real democracy isn’t merely the ability to choose between highly selected corporate candidates of gunshot, or poison.  I am here to empower you and remind you that while it is true that we are presented with the politics of no choice, during Novembers election; it doesn’t mean that you can’t determine a third choice for the betterment of our nation…the choice of solidarity with your fellows.