Crackdown on WikiLeaks and investigative journalism

Today we took part in a moving event calling for the release of Julian Assange. At noon today at the Brandenburg Gate, the

sculptures of
Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Chelsea Manning
were unveiled. Later in the day, a hearing was held in the German Bundestag on the topic of

"Media Under Fire"
Among those attending both events were Julian Assange’s father and Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

At Pariser Platz near the Brandenburg Gate, directly in front of the U.S. Embassy,

Sahra Wagenknecht, Member of the Bundestag, The Left Party parliamentary group
Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
Kristinn Hrafnsson, Editor-in-Chief of the whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks
John Shipton, father of Julian Assange
Davide Dormino, artist

Here is a video of the speech by UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer
and on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxiKS9oCrlo

The following is the speech by Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture

For decades, political dissidents were welcomed with open arms in the West because they were persecuted by dictatorial regimes in their fight for human rights. Today, however, Western dissidents themselves must seek asylum, just like Snowden in Russia or, until recently, Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. For the West has itself begun to persecute its dissidents, subjecting them to political show trials with draconian punishments and locking them up in high-security prisons like dangerous terrorists, under conditions that can only be described as degrading and inhumane.

Our governments feel threatened by Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange. For they are whistleblowers, journalists, and human rights activists who have provided us with concrete evidence of abuse, corruption, and war crimes committed by those in power—and who are therefore systematically defamed and persecuted.

They are the political dissidents of the West, and their persecution is the witch hunt of our time. For they threaten the privileges of an unchecked state power that has spiraled out of control. The cases of Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, and others are the most significant tests of our time for the credibility of Western rule of law and democracy, as well as our commitment to human rights.

In all these cases, the issue is not the person, the character, or any conspicuous misconduct of these dissidents, but rather how our governments deal with the exposure of their own misconduct.

How many soldiers have been held accountable for the massacre of civilians shown in the video "Collateral Murder"? How many agents for the systematic torture of terror suspects? How many politicians and CEOs have been held accountable for the corrupt, inhumane schemes that our whistleblowers have brought to light? That is what this is about. It is about the integrity of our rule of law, the credibility of our democracy, and ultimately our own human dignity and the future of our children. Let us never forget that.

Many thanks to Nils Melzer,
I hope to see you here again by December 10 at the latest.

At the hearing on the threat to press freedom in the German Bundestag this evening, in addition to approximately 200 interested Berliners, the following were also present:

Reporters Without Borders,
Caroline Berger, German Journalists' Union/ver.di,
Götz, NDR, SZ Research Network,
Sonthofen, Spiegel,
Daniel Ellsberg, journalist and whistleblower in the Watergate scandal (via video),
Edward Snowden*, whistleblower (with a message of greeting)

For over three and a half hours, the experts spoke in detail about their relationships with and experiences involving the whistleblower Julian Assange. There isn’t enough space here to list all the interesting details, so here are just a few points that were new to the author.

• All speakers agreed that we are facing an attack on press freedom in the Western world.
• The lawyer from Assange’s legal team and other human rights activists reject the U.S. claim to global application of its Espionage Act.
• Under European law and common understanding, no state may extradite a person if they face the death penalty or another disproportionate punishment there.
• The Spiegel reporter pointed out that the charges against WikiLeaks are at least formally flawed, since the publications agreed upon with WikiLeaks in 2010 took place 6 hours earlier than those by WikiLeaks due to the time difference between the Washington Post and Der Spiegel.
• The spokesperson for press affairs for The Left praised the EU Whistleblower Directive but fears that the national implementations will also be restrictive in Germany if we do not do everything in our power to counteract this.
• She also pointed out the tightening of telecommunications surveillance laws, which will threaten journalists in the future and call into question the protection of journalists’ sources.
• Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of the whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks, points out that the refusal of the financial oligopolies—PayPal, Amazon, and Mastercard—to process payments to WikiLeaks has severely damaged the platform.
• Reporters, who in 2010 were still annoyed that they had to encrypt their communications with WikiLeaks as much as possible at Assange’s request, have come to see the necessity of doing so in recent years.
• ...

The conclusion of the hearing was a shared commitment to continue working with all our might for the release of Julian Assange until the start of the extradition proceedings on February 24, 2020.

If politicians are allowed to decide what journalism is, then we are not far from them deciding what constitutes (real) news.

Note: We are appalled by the absence of media representatives in the capital. Only the television channel Russia Today streamed the hearing live. Even Phoenix, the ARD channel normally responsible for parliamentary coverage, was unable to broadcast the event.

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