I’m a GetUp member. I am also a journalist who has engaged with international affairs for decades. That’s why, as a matter of principle, I am greatly disturbed by what’s happening to Julian Assange. It overturns centuries of historic and legal precedent protecting freedom of the press, and exposes journalists around the world to the vengeance and tyranny of governments anywhere.
This point was made in the Editorial Opinion pages of the New York Times :
“If Mr Assange is extradited to the United States, the consequences will reverberate for years around the world. Mr Assange is not an American citizen, and none of his actions have taken place on American soil. If the United States can prosecute a journalist in these circumstances, the governments of Russia or China could, by the same logic, demand that foreign reporters anywhere on earth be extradited for violating their laws. The setting of such a precedent should deeply concern everyone, admirers of WikiLeaks or not.” 1
It is time for the Australian government to take a stand against this. Foreign Minister Bob Carr and Prime Minister Julia Gillard can pick up the phone today and ask for an agreement that the United States will not seek to extradite Assange for his work with WikiLeaks. Please join me in asking them to do so:
www.getup.org.au/campaigns/wikileaks/assange/sign-the-petition
As an Australian citizen, and the head of an Australian-based online media organisation, Mr Assange is entitled to the same rights and protection under freedom of the press that any journalist or publisher requires in order to do their job; without fear that if they expose the truth, they risk being sentenced to the death penalty. They are providing an essential service - empowering us by exposing what governments get up to in our name. We in turn must defend them.
The information WikiLeaks has released revealed serious wrongdoing, from the killing of Reuters news reporters and Iraqi civilians, including children, to corruption that so outraged nations of people it helped spark the Arab Spring. Media outlets around the world also published this information, but their editors’ safety is not at risk; only that of an Australian whose organisation has delivered a secure way for whistleblowers to upload material anonymously.
We know our government can, and must, do better to stand up for freedom of the press. Join me in signing this statement to Foreign Minister Bob Carr today:
www.getup.org.au/campaigns/wikileaks/assange/sign-the-petition
Thanks for being part of this,
Mary Kostakidis, journalist and GetUp member.
--- Note from the GetUp team, please be advised this note refers to sexual violence.---
Since we released the video of our interview with Julian Assange on Monday we've been contacted by many GetUp members with well-considered concerns about the campaign. We want to be clear about GetUp's stance in relation to the sexual assault charges against Julian Assange in Sweden and sexual violence generally.
Mr Assange stands accused of sexual assault in Sweden and must answer those allegations. We can't know what the outcome of that criminal process will be, but we believe that it is important for the allegations to be judged fairly, and for dignity to be afforded his accusers in that process. Allegations of sexual assualt too often are disregarded, too often never heard at all. We believe that resolving the question of Mr Assange’s extradition to the US in order for him to be able to go to Sweden to answer these allegations, would hasten justice for Mr Assange, and for the women who have made the sexual allegations.
We apologise sincerely to those who were offended because this has been unclear.
These issues can be distressing. Support is available by contacting the National Sexual Assault, Domestic & Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800 737 732 or www.1800respect.org.au.
[1] WikiLeaks and Free Speech By Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, The New York Times, August 20, 2012
Comments
Hysteria surrounding Assange by his misguided faithful adherents
Death penalty? How and why would Mary Kostakidos who calls herself a "journalist" write such rubbish?
The only civilians ever executed in the US (and rightly so) were two Americans who were Communists and were convicted and executed on June 19, 1953, for conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war. Their charges were related to the passing of information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. This was the only execution of civilians for espionage in United States history. The ability of the Soviet Union to build atomic weapons could have ended the world as we know it in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. Also European law, and in particular Swedish law, it is illegal for a Court to agree an extradition to a country where the accused may face the death penalty.
This absurd "death penalty" supposedly hanging over Assanges head though is just another of the excuses and conspiracy hysteria surrounding Assange by his misguided faithful adherents. Some incidentally who are now out of pocket thanks to Assange breaching bail so they lost the bail money they had ponied up.
In the GetUp letter Kostakidos refers to a letter in the New York Times but omiited from the quote , but hidden at the very bottom of her letter, was that the authors were Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, hardly the champions of capitalism or the American Government. Moore. The well fed 300lb. multi millionaire Moore who lives in luxury, once said that the American system is so flawed that Germany should never consider trying to copy it but stay on their correct socialist path. And Oliver Stone like Moore, supports Castro and Communist Cuba .Now if this NYT quote is so important, why does Kostatinos hide the authors at the bottom of her letter?
Kostakidos says ,,,"What they're doing to Julian Assange should terrify us all" ...Actually Assange is the head of a new breed of terrorist and what Assange is doing should terrify us all because he is undermining not only the U.S. Government but even our own Government.
Mr. Assange’s detractors accuse him of pursuing a vendetta against the United States. Even the Lefist U.K. newspaper "The Guardian".
Now it is not just governments that denounce him: some of his own comrades are abandoning him for what they see as erratic and imperious behavior, and a nearly delusional grandeur unmatched by an awareness that the digital secrets he reveals can have a price in flesh and blood.
The cunning of Julian Assange's strategy is that he has made everyone complicit in his own private decision to try to sabotage U.S. foreign policy. By his own admission Assange has stated that he "gets immense pleasure in hurting the American Government" and he "wants to bring it down." The very government that has ensured his freedom and that of the rest of the free world for nearly seventy years.
Yet Kostakidos says ,,,"What they're doing to Julian Assange should terrify us all" Actually what Assange is doing should terrify us all because by undermining the U.S. Government, he is placing all of us at risk. And for those who may not be aware. Our defence is almost completely dependent on American military might. We live under the U.S.nuclear shield and behind the guns of the US Fleet, which ensures that our sealanes are free and able to carry traded goods and oil, which in turn allows you to keep your job, drive your car and pay your mortgage. Our submarine fleet is down to one and even that caught fire the other day. Our defence forces are so miniscule that the U.S.Army alone has more mechanics than we have personnel in our entire ADF. However thanks to Assange ,U.S. intelligence that can warn of attacks on our soil or our citizens overseas is now being compromised, and Kostakidos and GetUp actually want you to support this delusional egotist?
WikiLeaks / Anonymous logic.
"We will fight for rights to privacy by exposing people’s confidentiality"
"We will fight for property rights by attacking people’s property"
"We will fight against greed and corruption by stealing credit card information"
"We will fight for freedom of speech by hacking the sites of people who disagree with us"
"We will fight for the rights of customers by knocking down the online service, which they all use, for a month"
In its self-contradictory maintenance of its own untraceable operations, it effectively declares itself to be the only agency in the world that is entitled to secrecy.
Some find it absurd that the United States should have a larger military than the next 10 nations combined. But that gap in military power has probably been the greatest factor in upholding an international system that, in historical terms, is unique" ...Robert Kagan.
The left's hero Assange is comprimising the security of your family and country- and as Cicero said "A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within..."
Control freaks with a need to dominate is politics
They (governments and churchs) seek to terrify all Australians and all citizens overseas especially those with a mind of their own.
Ultimately they cannot control the right that occurs when enough citizens speak out.
Control freaks with a need to dominate is what politics is all about.
Dirty business as the Dalai Lama said with verve.
The time is comi8ng when the dirty business will be further exposed and it's to Julian ASSANGE'S great credit and fame he brought so much social injustice to the world.
Mal