Skip to main content

Assange wins - The cost: the crushing of Press Freedom

by Jonathan Cook
 
Part 4 - Journalism as espionage
 
Significantly, Judge Baraitser backed all the Trump administration’s main legal arguments for extradition, even though they were comprehensively demolished by Assange’s lawyers.

Baraitser accepted the US government’s dangerous new definition of investigative journalism as “espionage”, and implied that Assange had also broken Britain’s draconian Official Secrets Act in exposing government war crimes.

She agreed that the 2007 Extradition Treaty applies in Assange’s case, ignoring the treaty’s actual words that exempt political cases like his. She thereby opened the door for other journalists to be seized in their home countries and renditioned to the US.

Baraitser accepted that protecting sources in the digital age – as Assange did for whistleblower Chelsea Manning, an essential obligation on journalists in a free society – now amounts to criminal “hacking”. She trashed free speech and press freedom rights, saying they did not provide “unfettered discretion by Mr Assange to decide what he’s going to publish”.

She appeared to approve of the ample evidence showing that the US spied on Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy, both in violation of international law and his client-lawyer privilege – a breach of his most fundamental legal rights that alone should have halted proceedings.

Baraitser argued that Assange would receive a fair trial in the US, even though it was almost certain to take place in the eastern district of Virginia, where the major US security and intelligence services are headquartered. Any jury there would be dominated by US security personnel and their families, who would have no sympathy for Assange.

So as we celebrate this ruling for Assange, we must also loudly denounce it as an attack on press freedom, as an attack on our hard-won collective freedoms, and as an attack on our efforts to hold the US and UK establishments accountable for riding roughshod over the values, principles and laws they themselves profess to uphold.

Even as we are offered with one hand a small prize in Assange’s current legal victory, the establishment’s other hand seizes much more from us.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1828: After five years, Julian Assange still in prison and under slow-motion execution by the Anglo-American imperialist criminals

failed evolution   On 11 April 2019, the Ecuadorian government of traitor Lenin Moreno, invited the Metropolitan Police into the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and they arrested Julian Assange . Since then, Assange is kept in Belmarsh high security prison in London, without actual charges.   The real reason world's number one political prisoner is still kept in this high security prison, is because he exposed horrendous war crimes carried out by the US imperialists and their allies.   The ruthless Western imperialist regime wants to punish the No1 real journalist in the world and make him an example for any Whistleblower or real journalist who will attempt to expose its big crimes in the future.   And the Anglo-American axis has now become officially a fascist coalition , framed by the rest of its Western pets. UK's Home Secretary Priti Patel, one of the most ruthless ever, decided to extradite Julian Assange to US. No surprise of course. The only question we had in mind is

Seymour Hersh - CIA Covers Up Nord Stream Bombing & Corruption Continues in Ukraine

davidekyo    

Zionist criminals admit on camera genocide & destruction of UN facilities

The Grayzone   Journalist Jeremy Loffredo joins The Grayzone to discuss his shocking and highly revelatory video report from inside the ranks of the Israeli nationalists blocking aid to Gaza with the quiet support of their government. Loffredo explains how he gained access to the demonstrators and the unsettling scenes he witnessed while filming his exclusive Grayzone documentary.

US sends troops & weapons to Taiwan. Is it preparing war on China?

Geopolitical Economy Report   The US government has sent troops to Taiwan, just a few kilometers from mainland China, while also selling billions of dollars of weapons and military equipment. Is Washington preparing for war? Ben Norton analyzes the geopolitical situation.  

Η μαύρη επταετία του καθεστώτος Μητσοτάκη

globinfo freexchange   Όπως έχουμε ήδη αναφέρει σε προηγούμενο άρθρο , η παντοδυναμία του καθεστώτος Μητσοτάκη στηρίζεται σε πήλινα πόδια. Τώρα, σε κανονικές συνθήκες, (έτσι βέβαια όπως τις αντιλαμβάνονται τα κέντρα αποφάσεων της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης), οι γραφειοφασίστες των Βρυξελλών και το διευθυντήριο του Βερολίνου φροντίζουν όλο και πιο συχνά να διαμηνύουν στις κυβερνήσεις ότι "το πάρτι τελείωσε".  Αυτό σημαίνει καταρχήν σκληρή λιτότητα. Και επειδή κανείς δεν ξέρει στην πραγματικότητα πόσο χρήμα μοιράστηκε στην προηγούμενη θητεία Μητσοτάκη, πάνω και κάτω από το τραπέζι, προς διάφορες κατευθύνσεις, προκειμένου το καθεστώς να ανανεώσει το ραντεβού του με την εξουσία, είναι πολύ πιθανό να αρχίσει να εμφανίζεται στον ορίζοντα ένας σοβαρός εκτροχιασμός των δημοσιονομικών στόχων και άρα των πολύ σκληρών όρων που επιβλήθηκαν στην κυβέρνηση Τσίπρα με αντάλλαγμα τη ρύθμιση του χρέους. Αυτό, με λίγα λόγια, σημαίνει δεύτερη επίσημη χρεοκοπία.   Και αυτό, με τη σειρά του, σ

The Invasion of Gaza's Resources Begins: Jared Kushner, the EU, Egypt & US

Richard Medhurst   Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son in law who previously tried to steal land in the Middle East from Arabs has said that Israel should empty the Gaza strip of civilians. He said that " Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable ". He then proceeded to suggest ethnic cleansing: " move the people out and clean it [Gaza] up " Simultaneously, the transfer of billions of dollars from the European Union (7.4b EUR), the International Monetery Fund ($8b) and the United Arab Emirates ($32b) to Egypt: an attempt to buy Sisi's silence perhaps? The United States is also shipping 1000 troops and a firm "Fogbow", owned by a former CIA officer and USMC veteran, in order to build a pier in Gaza. These events do not seem like a coincidence. Medhurst explains why this relates to theft of gas and building of a canal in Gaza.   Related: Zionist and US imperialist criminals are about to grab the natural gas off shore Gaza

Yanis Varoufakis Banned from Germany as Berlin Police Raid & Shut Down Palestinian Conference

Democracy Now!   As Germany intensifies its crackdown on pro-Palestinian voices, Democracy Now! spoke with Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis, one of the planned speakers at a conference in Berlin last weekend that was forcibly shut down by police. The Palestine Congress was scheduled to be held for three days, but police stormed the venue as the first panelist spoke.    Germany's Interior Ministry had also banned some conference speakers from even entering the country, including Varoufakis, the Palestinian British surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah and the Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta.    " This is not about protecting Jewish lives and Jews from antisemitism. It's all about protecting the right of Israel to commit any war crime of its choice, " says Varoufakis.    Varoufakis speaks also about freeing Julian Assange and his new book Technofeudalism .      Related: Germany again on a dark path towards fascism

Πως θα καταλάβετε ότι το καθεστώς Μητσοτάκη είναι ότι χειρότερο έχει κυβερνήσει τη χώρα στη μεταπολίτευση

Από τον μέγα ηγέτη Μωυσή ως τον αντίπαλο λαό, μια θητεία Μητσοτάκη δρόμος     globinfo freexchange   Αν ακόμα δεν έχετε πάρει χαμπάρι με τι άθλια διακυβέρνηση έχουμε να κάνουμε.   Αν δεν σας έπεισε η καταστροφική διαχείριση της πανδημίας, οι υποκλοπές, τα Τέμπη, το ρεκόρ καμένων δασών, η ακρίβεια, τα υπερκέρδη των καρτέλ, η διάλυση του συστήματος υγείας και τόσα άλλα.  Τότε μάλλον ανήκετε στην κατηγορία των ανθρώπων που είναι εξαιρετικά επιρρεπείς στην επικοινωνιακή καταιγίδα του καθεστώτος Μητσοτάκη, με την οποία επιχειρεί να κρύψει τον όλεθρο που σπέρνει στο διάβα του. Όμως αν είναι όντως έτσι, ίσως να σας πείσει η δραματική αλλαγή του επικοινωνιακού αφηγήματος του μιντιακού προπαγανδιστικού μηχανισμού, που απεικονίζει το μέγεθος της αποτυχίας της διακυβέρνησης Μητσοτάκη. Θυμηθείτε ότι με την έναρξη της πρώτης θητείας Μητσοτάκη, ο μηχανισμός προπαγάνδας παρουσίαζε τον ίδιο τον Μητσοτάκη ως τον μέγα ηγέτη που βγάζει την Ελλάδα από το περιθώριο, χρησιμοποιώντας πολλές φορές και υπερβολ

LEAKED: How Israel Calculates the Non-Value of Civilian Life in Gaza

Glenn Greenwald    

Russia’s FSB chief says US, Britain, Ukraine behind Moscow attack

The director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, said on Tuesday (26 March) that the United States, Britain and Ukraine were behind the Moscow concert hall attack that killed at least 139 people on Friday, state news agency TASS reported.   Ukraine has denied Russian accusations of involvement in the attack, for which the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility. Western countries have said their intelligence indicates that ISIS-K, Islamic State’s Afghan offshoot, was responsible.  Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Monday that last week’s deadly attack was carried out by Islamic militants, but suggested it was also to the benefit of Ukraine and that Kyiv may have played a role. Fresh accusations from the secretary of Russia’s security council that Kyiv was responsible for a deadly attack in Moscow on Friday are lies, senior Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on X. Full report: https://www.euractiv.com/section/global