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US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media

theguardian.com

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Re: US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media

#61

Post by cyphar »

devoply wrote: post #57
chrisseaton wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a basket with soap and socks Does this have some cultural significance? It a symbolic snub of some kind? The speaker in the video says that they sent him this care package and then pauses and stares into space like it's the most obviously terrible thing they could have done and needs no further comment. I don't get it?

If I had to guess it's something (socks) you might give to a homeless person.

No, the problem is that it is literally the least useful form of "help" they could've given someone who is facing political persecution from the most powerful government on Earth. It's basically a really underhanded way of saying "you're on your own on this one".

Re: US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media

#62

Post by Miner49er »

levelist_com wrote: post #52
sschueller wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who gets to decide who is a journalist? The government?

Not only is he not a journalist, he actively encouraged others to steal and disseminate classified information. That is a crime in this country and most, if not all, other countries I would imagine. Having a website doesn't make you a journalist. Calling yourself a journalist didn't make it so. Courts will have to decide that I suppose.

He's not even a US citizen. Why should he face our laws? Should American woman be extradited to Saudi Arabia for not following their laws? Should American citizens be extradited to North Korea, or China, for exposing their government secrets? It's extremely authoritarian for the United States to do this. It's not only an attack on free speech, it's the United States applying it's laws to everyone in the world.

Also, it doesn't matter if he's a journalist or not. It's an attack on freedom of the press or freedom of speech either way.

Re: US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media

#63

Post by levelist_com »

chrisseaton wrote: post #55
whyenot wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Isn't that something that ultimately the courts will have to decide?

> Isn't that something that ultimately the courts will have to decide? Why would they need to decide that? Are there laws which only apply to journalists, or don't apply to journalists?

https://www.google.com/search?q=laws+and+journalism&rlz=1C1G...

Re: US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media

#64

Post by maxheadroom »

auiya wrote: post #49
sschueller wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who gets to decide who is a journalist? The government?

Utlimately, yes. And it varies from state to state. https://www.rcfp.org/journals/the-news-media-and-the-law-win...

Any American "standards" for what a journalist is or isn't isn't really applicable to an international defendent, which Assange is, yeah?

If so, then you must admit that America is imposing it's own (subjective and ever-changing, depending on the parties in power) view on the international theatre and that's where the concern starts to get exacerbated.

Re: US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media

#65

Post by 52-6F-62 »

k1m wrote: post #45
cyphar wrote: post #35

I find it incredible that it took the Guardian 7 years to decide to write this article. EDIT: In fact, it's not even by the Guardian -- it's an opinion piece by an ex-Guardian editor who was (at least implicitly) part of the smear campaign against Julian Assange "back in the day". Let's not forget that the Guardian sent Julian Assange a basket with soap and socks when he took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy[1]. What…

Agree, the Guardian has been one of the most vocal papers in attacking and ridiculing Assange. We collected some of this output here https://theguardian.fivefilters.org/assange/ Especially damning now with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture describing his treatment as psychological torture: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?N...

I'm sorry, but your web site seems like a bit of nonsense veiled in a guise that it's out to present "the truth".

Many of the linked tweets don't resolve, and the rest of the web site appears to be purely a Greenwald support group in his seeming vendetta against his former employer.

The site also proclaims [paraphrasing] "do not trust the Guardian—read our write-ups of the same subjects instead".

I can't take that any more seriously than "corporate-state media".

I should add, if corporate-sponsored journalism outlets is a problem for your group, then I suggest you also drop The Intercept:

Financial backing for The Intercept was provided by Pierre Omidyar, the eBay founder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Greenwald

Re: US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media

#66

Post by chippy »

_130o wrote: post #27

[flagged]

It's good that we should think that journalists should be non partisan and just report on the facts. The reality appears that almost all of the media outlets are partisan and that journalists appear to be biased. Would it be better if we spread the idea that no journalism is impartial and spread facts of such bias and influence where we encounter them or would it be better to put our effort into (what I assume is the current strategy) of promoting the idea that it's only the other side that is partisan and our side sees clearly?

Re: US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media

#68

Post by Roonerelli »

cyphar wrote: post #35

I find it incredible that it took the Guardian 7 years to decide to write this article. EDIT: In fact, it's not even by the Guardian -- it's an opinion piece by an ex-Guardian editor who was (at least implicitly) part of the smear campaign against Julian Assange "back in the day". Let's not forget that the Guardian sent Julian Assange a basket with soap and socks when he took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy[1]. What…

What do you mean by "It's not even an article by the Guardian -- it's an opinion piece"

The author of the piece, Alan Rusbridger, is the Editor-in-chief of the Guardian

Re: US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media

#69

Post by cyphar »

Roonerelli wrote: post #68
cyphar wrote: post #35

I find it incredible that it took the Guardian 7 years to decide to write this article. EDIT: In fact, it's not even by the Guardian -- it's an opinion piece by an ex-Guardian editor who was (at least implicitly) part of the smear campaign against Julian Assange "back in the day". Let's not forget that the Guardian sent Julian Assange a basket with soap and socks when he took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy[1]. What…

What do you mean by "It's not even an article by the Guardian -- it's an opinion piece" The author of the piece, Alan Rusbridger, is the Editor-in-chief of the Guardian

Ah, I didn't look up the author's credentials -- I will edit my comment. Often opinion pieces in newspapers are not the same as articles written by journalists and published as fully-fledged articles (usually they have an implicit caveat of "this is not the official opinion of $newspaper").

Re: US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media

#70

Post by Miner49er »

duxup wrote: post #67

I don't really buy it. The crime he was accused of by the US is helping someone try to break into a laptop. That's beyond most journalistic standards for conduct and a criminal act. We'll see what can be proved in court from here.

You're behind. That was one charge. That charge doesn't really matter anymore. It wasn't really the attack on freedom of the press that the new charges are.

He's now being charged under the Espionage act for asking for classified info and publishing it. The new charges are what matter and what everyone is talking about.

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