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Assange's release delayed
Barry White
DATELINE: 14/12/10
The Campaign welcomes the court's decision today to grant Julian Assange bail, but it is regrettable that the Swedish authorities have subsequently decided to appeal the decision. It is understood that the appeal should be heard within 48 hours.
The story of Julian Assange remains a distraction from the even more serious retribution being inflicted on WikiLeaks by other agencies, under US pressure. And there was no hiding the pleasure of the US authorities when Assange was first remanded and bail refused at the court last week.Assange's lawyer Mark Stephens was right today when he said that the Swedish authorities did not want to abide by the court's decision. They want to put him through yet more trouble, more expense, more hurdles and will spare no expense to keep him in jail.
The Campaign believes that governments and corporations have no justification for their witch hunt against WikiLeaks. They are trying to cover their embarrassment by seeking to deny people the right to know. Many of the revelations expose corruption and double-dealing in public life that are worthy of public scrutiny. Many governments and corporations are out to destroy WikiLeaks as a credible vehicle for exposing wrong doing.
WikiLeaks represents a landmark in journalism, which seeks to tell the truth to power. The CPBF joins with other supporters of freedom of information in demanding that WikiLeaks is protected to continue its work and that Julian Assange is treated in accordance with the principles of justice, not vengeance.
Last modified: Wednesday, December 15, 2010
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Xeroxing the war
Posted Wed, 2010-12-08 22:53 by arjen
In 1969, when the Vietnam War was in full swing, a senior analyst at the U.S. Department of Defense was quietly copying a secret report about the war. This report, which ran to 7000 pages, covered the progress of the Vietnam war in exhaustive detail. The analyst intended to share this highly classified information with influential politicians and scientists, in the hope that it would quickly bring the war to an end.
That analyst was Daniel Ellsberg, a former officer of the Marine Corps who worked for RAND, the Pentagon think tank. As a result of his experiences in Vietnam and his meetings with conscientious objectors in the US, he became convinced that the war was wrong. With his insider's knowledge, he already knew that it was militarily lost, but that the American government was misleading the people. Every day the Vietnam war took about eight hundred Vietnamese lives, more than two thirds of them civilians, and twenty American soldiers. Many more were seriously injured or maimed for life..
On June 13, 1971 The New York Times tried to publish a number of excerpts from these documents, but was blocked by the Nixon government through legal and political means. Senator Mike Gravel made a breakthrough by reading a large part of the document in the Senate. The reading of 4100 pages took a while, but the rules of the Senate do not allow a senator who is talking to be interrupted (the "filibuster"). Everything the Senator said automatically became part of the proceedings of the Senate and thus on the public record. The publication of this information was the beginning of the end of the Vietnam war and the start the process of withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Fast forward to 2010. The US is once again embroiled in unwinnable wars, launched on dubious grounds, that continue indefinitely without any clear strategy or goal. Every extra day that these wars continue, more civilians and soldiers die.
And now there are new people who leak secret information about the wars, in the hope that the resulting political pressure will bring them to a close. The Xerox technology in 1969 has been replaced by a global computer network that uses encryption to protect the identity of the whistleblowers. Even Wikileaks does not know their identities – this is safer for both the whistleblowers and Wikileaks.
But the media's response is simply surreal. The bulk of the attention and the debate is about the Xerox machine – or at least the 21st century equivalent of it, the Wikileaks website. Questions such as "is WikiLeaks journalism?" and "should you be allowed to leak classified information?" are discussed in exhaustive detail by apparently intelligent media pundits – who with alarming regularity seem to have little understanding of the very technology they are discussing.
Iraq Deaths EstimatorThe first 'big' coup from Wikileaks, the “Collatoral Murder" video, led to a huge debate about the culpability of the helicopter pilots and whether or not it was reasonable for them to be able to distinguish between a camera and a grenade launcher. The key topic that was not discussed was the simple fact that the Pentagon had knowingly, for three years, lied to both Reuters and the families of the civilian casualties in Baghdad about the circumstances surrounding the shooting by an Apache helicopter, which was one kilometre away and which riddled two children with bullets from its cannon. The Pentagon made a statement in 2007 saying that it knew nothing of any injuries to children, even though it had been in possession of this video from day one and it leaves nothing to the imagination.
The deliberate lying from the start of the Iraq war continues to this day. The Dutch late night talk show, P&W, led the news on TV with "Dutchman involved in leaking attack video": that, after all, is news - apparently far more important than the fact that children were shot and there was a cover-up.
Wikileaks has already been the top story in the news for more than one week, and that's a problem. The Xerox machine is not important. Illegal wars of aggression launched on the basis of lies are important. The torture of innocent citizens in secret prisons is important. Spying on UN diplomats is important. Messing about in the internal political decisions of other countries is important.
So why is the entire media is so busy with the Xerox machine and the person with his finger on the copy button? Dear journalists, you have been presented with a cornucopia of scoops, many of which make Watergate pale into insignifcance. If African dictators were doing the things Western countries are being accused of, they would be dragged in handcuffs to the International Court in The Hague. Get to work!
Posted by: Argen (via CPBF Office): 15 Dec, 2010 16:59:48
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Free Speech & Censorship
The arrest of Julian Assange - the work goes on
How the BBC surreptitiously censors callers to phone-ins
Net censorship finds a new expression
Welcome for decision to drop proposed cabinet papers exemption
Stars of UK comedy and science stand up against unfair libel laws
CPBF condemns temporary shutdown for WikiLeaks
Panorama nurse can return to work
Secret filming nurse up for award
Whistleblower Nurse Appeal
Breen judgment a landmark victory for press freedom
An untold story?
Hundreds demonstrate their freedom to photograph
Olympic builders forced to sign gagging orders
Brown backs down in expenses row
Access to MPs' expenses move criticised
Triumph for journalists' rights as Sally Murrer wins her case
No Place for Censorship at Olympics
Journalists facing harassment in China says Greenslade
Chinese Authorities' Broken Promises
AGM condemns threats to Media Lens
CPBF condemns Tesco libel action
Unite demands reinstatement for Pizza man
Response to the Ministry of Justice proposal to extend FoI
Reporters Without Borders launch free expression day
Update on Mordechai Vanunu
'We must be able to show world as it is'
CPBF response to the cartoons
Derek Pasquill
Pasquill Trial collapses
Campaigners welcome FoI climbdown
