Today, a press release from a 'Monash Expert' came across my desk, entitled, "Monash expert: Julian Assange plea deal." It cited Associate Professor, Johan Lidberg, Head of Journalism, School of Media Film and Journalism. My attention was caught by a statement a few sentences down, where the associate professor, said, "Assange's legacy is complex. There were certainly times in the early days of Wikileaks where he demonstrated poor understanding of the ethical frameworks that govern public interest journalism and publishing." (Gosh, what a shabby putdown to a genius Australian journalist and publisher who has just been released from years of imprisonment and torture after exposing war-crimes!)
I emailed Ass Prof Johan Lidberg, asking him for an example to support his statement, and he came back quickly with the following:
The falling out between WL/Assange and their collaborators The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel. The three outlets and Assange met to discuss what needed to be redacted in terms of names for the final publication of the Afghan War Diaries. There were a number of people named in the logs that were still active on the ground in Afghanistan that could have been harmed by the publication. Assange refused the redactions suggested by the outlets and the collaboration ended. This is called harm minimisation in journalism/publishing ethics and Assange showed limited understanding of this.
A second instance was the publication of the hacked Democratic emails in the 2016 US presidential election. The public interest in this publication is highly dubious.
To which I replied with another email, in which I wrote:
"Thanks, but I thought that was substantially refuted by John Goetz of De Spiegel (at Assange's 2020 extradition hearing.)" [1]
I sent the email at 4.19pm but have received no reply. I didn't bother with the Hilary Clinton emails not being relevant when they set off the whole Russia Hoax thing in the US.
So, is that the answer to how the mainstream Australian Press is going to treat Julian Assange, arguably a man who achieved a global stature and reach close to that of Jesus, a man whose face can push Che Guevara's off tea-shirts? Furthermore, what do we make of a head of a journalism school talking about journalism ethics and public interest whilst purveying hoary old slurs on an incredibly brave and unusual man who pioneered a new form of reporting and journalism for our times. I mean, if nothing else, he should have said that John Goetz had countered the failure to redact allegation. That would have seemed professional.
But then, who am I kidding? It's not the job of the mainstream press and journalism schools to be fair. They are in the business of 'harm minimisation' for the powerful. Do they even check up on their pronouncements about Julian? They've been purveying the same schmegegge for years now. Probably, when Julian is buried, some jealous mason will add the same slur to his headstone.
The rest of the press release was more acceptable:
“The news that Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, is on his way home to Australia is welcome indeed."
But that aside, the last five years of jail time for being a publisher and journalist has sent a chilling message to journalists in all liberal democracies - that you may be pursued by governments if you publish controversial content. Fortunately the Biden government has realised the huge consequences if Assange had been prosecuted for practising journalism.
“Apart from the consequences for journalism and publishing, Assange's situation has been a human rights issue since he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy. No one should be incarcerated for publishing facts and speaking their mind.”
Too right!
Let's hope Julian really will be heading home soon from whatever US base on the Northern Marianas Islands they are holding his hearing at.
NOTES
[1] "Award-winning investigative journalist John Goetz testified at Assange’s extradition hearing yesterday morning from Berlin, blowing out of the water US government claims that Assange had failed to redact names from US classified documents, placing the lives of US government informants at risk.
Goetz, Head of Investigations for German public broadcaster NDR, was a journalist at Der Spiegel when it partnered with WikiLeaks in 2010. He travelled to London in June of that year where he worked with Assange and senior journalists from the Guardian and New York Times on what later became known as the Afghan War Diaries." Read more here.
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