Time to protect our freedom of speech

Journalist Mary Kostakidis has joined with GetUp in wanting to put pressure on the Australian  gov. She wants the Australian gov to "ask for an agreement that the United States will not seek to extradite Assange for his work with Wikileaks". 

I dunno how much good it'll do, but you can make your concerns known to the foreign minister Bob Carr by signing the online petition started here:

Dear friends, I’m a GetUp member. I am also a journalist who has engaged with international affairs for decades. That’s why, as a matter of principle, I am greatly disturbed by what’s happening to Julian Assange. It overturns centuries of historic and legal precedent protecting freedom of the press, and exposes journalists around the world to the vengeance and tyranny of governments anywhere. 

This point was made in the Editorial Opinion pages of the New York Times : 

“If Mr. Assange is extradited to the United States, the consequences will reverberate for years around the world. Mr. Assange is not an American citizen, and none of his actions have taken place on American soil. If the United States can prosecute a journalist in these circumstances, the governments of Russia or China could, by the same logic, demand that foreign reporters anywhere on earth be extradited for violating their laws. The setting of such a precedent should deeply concern everyone, admirers of WikiLeaks or not.” 

It is time for the Australian government to take a stand against this. Foreign Minister Bob Carr and Prime Minister Julia Gillard can pick up the phone today and ask for an agreement that the United States will not seek to extradite Assange for his work with Wikileaks. Please join me in asking them to do so. 

As an Australian citizen, and the head of an Australian-based online media organisation, Mr. Assange is entitled to the same rights and protection under freedom of the press that any journalist or publisher requires in order to do their job; without fear that if they expose the truth, they risk being sentenced to the death penalty. They are providing an essential service - empowering us by exposing what governments get up to in our name. We in turn must defend them. 

The information Wikileaks has released revealed serious wrongdoing, from the killing of Reuters news reporters and Iraqi civilians, including children, to corruption that so outraged nations of people it helped spark the Arab Spring. Media outlets around the world also published this information, but their editors’ safety is not at risk; only that of an Australian whose organisation has delivered a secure way for whistleblowers to upload material anonymously. 

We know our government can, and must, do better to stand up for freedom of the press. Join me in signing this statement to Foreign Minister Bob Carr today. 

Thanks for being part of this, 

Mary Kostakidis, journalist and GetUp member. Sign

I agree that what they're trying to do with Assange should be of deep concern to everyone on the Western world (or the entire world for that matter). He still hasn't been charged with anything, and can't get to Sweden to answer the accusations about sex there because of the very real possibility the US will extradite him from Sweden. They've already labelled him an enemy, politicians there have already demanded the death penalty, and once in the US he will be simply subject to a military kangaroo court.

The time has gone where we can go on just blindly believing that the USA gov will follow long held conventions regarding human rights, a fair trial, and the presumption of innocence. It's time now we used our close relationship with the US to voice our concerns and opposition to what's become of a country once proud of it's record of human rights, and who once strived to embrace those rights.