Last
week, rallies in support of Julian Assange were held around the
world. We participated in two #AssangeUnity events seeking to
#FreeAssange in Washington, DC. This is the beginning of a new phase
of the campaign to stop the persecution of Julian Assange and allow
him to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London without the threat of
being arrested in the UK or facing prosecution by the United States.
by
Kevin Zeese - Margaret Flowers
Part
1 - The Assange Case is a Linchpin For Freedom of the Press and
Freedom of Information in the 21st Century
The
threat of prosecution against Julian Assange for his work as
editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks will be a key to defining what Freedom
of the Press means in the 21st Century. Should people be allowed to
know the truth if their government is corrupt, violating the law or
committing war crimes? Democracy cannot exist when people are misled
by a concentrated corporate media that puts forth a narrative on
behalf of the government and big business.
This is
not the first time that prosecution of a journalist will define
Freedom of the Press. Indeed, the roots of Freedom of the Press in
the United States go back to the prosecution of John Peter Zenger, a
publisher who was accused of libel in 1734 for publishing articles
critical of the British royal governor, William Cosby. Zenger was
held in prison for eight months awaiting trial. In the trial, his
defense took its case directly to the jury.
For five
hundred years, Britan had made it illegal to publish “any
slanderous News” that may cause “discord” between the king and
his people. Zenger’s defense argued that he had published the truth
about Cosby and therefore did not commit a crime. His lawyer “argued
that telling the truth did not cause governments to fall. Rather, he
argued, ‘abuse of power’ caused governments to fall.” The
jury heard the argument, recessed and in ten minutes returned with a
not guilty verdict.
The same
issue is presented by Julian Assange — publishing the truth is not
a crime. Wikileaks, with Assange as its editor and publisher,
redefined reporting in the 21st Century by giving people the ability
to be whistleblowers to reveal the abuses of government and big
business. People anonymously send documents to Wikileaks via the
Internet and then after reviewing and authenticating them, Wikileaks
publishes them. The documents sometimes reveal serious crimes, which
has resulted in Assange being threatened with a secret indictment for
espionage that could keep him incarcerated for the rest of his life.
This
puts the Assange case at the forefront of 21st Century journalism as
he is democratizing the media by giving people the power to know the
truth not reported, or falsely reported, by the corporate media.
Breaking elite control over the media narrative is a serious threat
to their power because information is power. And, with the internet
and the ability of every person to act as a media outlet through
social and independent media, control of the narrative is moving
toward the people.
WikiLeaks
is filling a void with trust in the corporate media at record lows. A
recent Gallup Poll found only 32% trust the media. There has been a
significant drop in newspaper circulation and revenue, an ongoing
decline since 1980. Also, fewer people rely on television for news.
In this
environment, the internet-based news is becoming more dominant and
WikiLeaks is a particular threat to media monopolization by the
elites. Research is showing that independent and social media are
having an impact on people’s opinions.
The
threats to Julian Assange are occurring when dissent is under attack,
particularly media dissent; the FBI has a task force to monitor
social media. The attack on net neutrality, Google using algorithms
to prevent searches for alternative media and Facebook controlling
the what people see are all part of the attack on the democratized
media.
Source,
links:
Related:
Urgent
message to Bernie and Jeremy: the time has come to support Julian
Assange clearly and openly!
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