Turning point for freedom of the press
+ + + Council of Europe recognises political persecution of Assange + + + Signal to whistleblowers and journalists + + + Appeal to the USA +++
On the 2nd In October, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recognised that the prosecution initiated by the United States between 2010 and 2024 against Julian Assange was a political persecution.
Why it’s important
_ While the fight for control of information has recently made headlines with pressure on Telegram and X, the PACE resolution is a strong signal to journalists and whistleblowers. The atrocities that Assange has revealed in his Wikileaks must not be hidden from the public in the name of the state reason.
This makes it more difficult for governments to gag media representatives and leave the crimes committed by their agents unpunished. In 2010, Wikileaks published evidence of atrocities committed by the American and British armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
_ The Council of Europe has once again proven to be the most important institution for the protection of human rights. In 2005, the same council gave the late Dick Marty the mandate to investigate the secret CIA prisons in Europe. In 2015 and 2016, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Poland, Lithuania and Romania for the accommodation of such detention centres.
Good to know
Assange’s legal saga begins in 2010, four months after the publication of secret documents about the Iraq war. It will be until the 26th. June 2024, the day on which Assange makes a guilty statement to the US justice system.
_ First, he was charged with a sexual offence in Sweden. The case was re-debriefed in 2017 as there was no evidence of conviction. Since Assange feared extradition to the United States, he received political asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he was sentenced to the 11th. April 2019 when it was handed over to the British authorities. At that time, a new Ecuadorean president was in office, who was accused of corruption by Wikileaks.
The release came after Assange spent five years in a high-security prison in Great Britain. It is still puzzled what prompted Washington to agree to the release.
What follows
_ PACE stated that Assange’s treatment had had a dangerous deterrent effect on journalists and whistleblowers around the world.
She also called on the United States to take action against the impunity of state officials guilty of war crimes. Will this appeal be put into action? There is reason to doubt this.
PS
Chelsea Manning, author of the leaks that led to the publication of the documents, was sentenced to 35 years in prison but released after her sentence was converted in 2017. Alain Berset was elected Secretary-General of the Council of Europe in June 2024.
(J-D.Ruch/ TGP Weltwoche)
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