Access to the Internet to be informed, to inform others, and to express one's own opinion, is considered by most to be a basic human right in the 21st Century. Yet, this basic human right has now been taken away from Julian Assange by the Ecuadorian government. Wikileaks Publisher, Julian Assange, could be compared with Martin Luther, who used the printing press to challenge a corrupt Roman Catholic empire. In Assange's case, he used of the internet to challenge the corrupt, oppressive, warmongering global regime headed by the United States. We all live under this regime, but we have almost no media through which to question its dark sway. Assange provided that media through Wikileaks. The Ecuadorian Government must be recognised for having given Assange asylum as a political refugee for many years, when his own country, Australia, so shamefully turned its back on him, and on the international crimes he exposed. This granting of asylum by the Ecuadorian Government was the only thing that prevented the Swedish Government and the British Government from handing Assange over to the United States Government. The US has threatened to try Assange for espionage even though he is (a) not a US citizen and (b) has performed an heroic service to the world in exposing the US government's illegal actions against prisoners of war, as well as its multiple illegal surveillance of ordinary citizens. In fact, such a trial would present the rogue US government with much embarrassment because it would throw more light on the secrets that Wikileaks exposed. It is thus correct to fear that Assange would not be tried, but simply imprisoned without a public trial. Assange has also exposed many similar crimes to the US's that have been carried out by other governments. Recently he tweeted an opinion on the independence movement in Catalonia. The Ecuadorian Government, his long-term asylum hosts, who have recently also become his country of citizenship, have claimed that this tweet caused them embarrassment. The upshot has been that his internet access has been removed by his new country and asylum-giver. Assange's only contact with the world and with witnesses to his frightening imprisonment by global conspiracy is via the internet. Without internet contact, he may as well be in a dungeon in Ecuador's London embassy. This seems like a terrible punishment for a solitary tweet. Some might question his judgement for tweeting something politically compromising for Ecuador in the light of his dependence on its goodwill. Many others would defend the world's need to open access to information about the Catalan problems. The situation is intolerably difficult, morally, politically and humanly. However, what we most hope for is that Julian Assange, a once-citizen of Australia who we are so sorry to have lost to this country, will be granted access to the internet and also that he will saved from the imprisonment that the United Nations has deemed to be illegal and unjust.
This discussion on Crosstalk asks whether in the prosecution or persecution of Julian Assange, the western world is seeing the death of journalism. Michael Patchett-Joyce, a barrister specialising in international and European law, brings some new views to the program. John Wight counters with some persuasive political analysis, as does ex-British parliamentarian, George Galloway. The issue of the courts and the 'public good' comes up. John Wight points out that this is an issue of class; the public good is really about the good of the establishment. Galloway says that, if Julian is extradited to the United States, there will be no juries and the US will not feel itself bound to any promises it may have made to Britain in this matter. Patchett-Joyce suggests that the case has a long way to go before a decision can be made about extradition. At no time does anyone mention Julian's cat, but we think this might be a picture of it.
This very informative article is republished from 
The Canadian Peace Alliance (CPA) condemns the governments of Ecuador, the UK, and USA, for their collaboration in arresting and extraditing journalist Julian Assange. This was not a secretive operation carried out under the cover of darkness. Rather, it was handled very roughly and in broad daylight to send a chill into the bones of would-be investigative journalists and whistle-blowers around the globe.
The President of Ecuador, on flimsy pretext, has thrown Julian Assange to the wolves. Today Ruptly footage shows Assange being manhandled by several police from the embassy into a police vehicle. Julian had long hair and a long beard and was shouting, "The UK must resist," and something about "the Trump administration." From somewhere else, the Ecuadorian President delivered a prepared speech to cameras from his wheelchair, stating, among other things, that the UK Government has agreed in writing that Julian would not be sent anywhere he might be tortured or face the death penalty. Wikileaks has said, however, that Assange has been arrested for 'extradition to the United States for publishing'. 
Video: French demonstrate outside the Australian embassy in Paris, calling for the cowardly unprincipled Australian Government to help Julian Assange. "Where are the 'We are all Charlie' freedom of the press demonstrators?" they cry.
Not so long ago the middle classes were marching enthusiastically all over the western world to defend freedom of the press, after the massacre of journalists at Charlie Hebdo. "We are all Charlie!" they cried. Now there is hardly a peep about Julian Assange's cruel and unusual punishment for telling the world of war-crimes. Certainly no mass marches in the street. What's the difference? The mainstream press is singing a different song. It suited them to have people marching in the streets about Charlie Hebdo. Now, for some reason, it doesn't.
The real 'matrix'. Barrett Brown, publisher and journalist talks to Chris Hedges about the US government’s war on Wikileaks, Assange and other outlets exposing the inner workings of power. 
The Free Julian Assange protest outside the British Consulate at 90 Collins Street Melbourne started on time and was well attended. Julian Assange's father was there and thanked people for coming. We have to give credit to the organisers - the Socialist Equity Party (SEP). It seems that no-one else in Melbourne has been able to draw people together to protest about Julian Assange's persecution, although it is obvious that many people do care. A problem may be that people believe they need permission to hold meetings and rallies, but this is rarely the case. There were several speakers and we did not film all of them. The films uploaded here were filmed on a hand-held digital camcorder, more for the record than for art. We also filmed the surroundings and participants to give viewers an idea of the scene in Australia. Another protest was to be held tonight (19 June 2018) at the State Library, where the film, Collateral Murder, would be shown. We have embedded a copy of this chilling record of a night of murder for fun by US armed forces in Iraq, which is a document that Julian Assange published, and for which he has been pursued with murderous resentment by the United States ever since. 
Fears are increasing that something terrible has happened to Julian Assange, the Australian who founded Wikileaks and exposed power elites in the United States - most recently through 
It is Mrs Hillary Clinton who should be in prison, not Julian Assange. For anyone who is still confused about what on earth Wikileaks has demonstrated about Hilary Clinton, watch this very clear interview by Australia's most famous independent Australian journalist, John Pilger and check the transcript below the video. Assange makes perfectly clear the association between Saudi Arabia and ISIS and Saudi Arabia and the Clinton Foundation. It shows that Hillary Clinton, whilst Secretary of State (!), knew and knows that the Saudi Arabian and Qatar governments were and are funding ISIS. This relationship with terrorism has been going on for years. The Australian Government and opposition must also know this. And, the Australian government, by not getting Assange safely back home is spectacularly failing its obligations to protect its own citizens from persecution. Our government is a cowardly lackey to the United States and the opposition and the Greens are just as bad because they say nothing about this. Our press protects this collusive silence. Assange is without doubt a courageous world figure and an Australian hero, but without Australia's intervention, Assange risks being thrown into a dungeon, like Chelsea Manning - with a mockery trial in the United States, should he step outside the Ecuadorian Embassy. Transcript inside, first published on RT at 
On 4 December 2015, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) adopted Opinion No. 54/2015, in which it considered that Mr. Julian Assange was arbitrarily detained by the Governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In that opinion, the Working Group recognized that Mr. Assange is entitled to his freedom of movement and to compensation. The application was filed with the Working Group in September 2014. The Opinion 54/2015 was sent to the Governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 22 January 2016 in accordance with the Working Group’s Methods of Work.
Inside is the text of the public statement issued by the UN expert panel on Arbitrary Detention, which you will not find in most mainstream publications, which are seeking to obfuscate the UN opinion and its importance, with their own opinions. Julian Assange is a Victorian-born Australian citizen and asylum-seeker, recognised as a refugee by the UN. The Ecuadorian Embassy in London granted him refugee status, but the UK government stopped him from going to Ecuador by taking his passport and surrounding the embassy with police, day and night. What did Assange do? Assange famously published, on his Wikileaks, authentic film of US soldiers hunting down civilians with helicopters and machine guns as if they were in a video game.
5 February 2016 – The founder of the WikiLeaks website, which published confidential diplomatic information, has been arbitrarily detained by Sweden and the United Kingdom since his arrest in London in December 2010, as a result of the legal action against him by both Governments, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said today. 
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