FOLLOW UP OPEN LETTER TO PETER GRESTE RE JULIAN ASSANGE

Dear Peter

Following on from my ‘open letter’ to you of 2^ndJuly.

 ‘New Matilda’ recently published the following comment in relation to the Global Conference for Media Freedom held in London last week, which you attended:

Peter Greste backtracked on former denunciations of Julian Assange, noting that the Wikileaks founder is part of an ecosystem of “whistleblowing, accountability and publishing of journalism”, which “we need to be protecting as a whole”. 

Is this statement an accurate description of your current view of Julian Assange’s status as a journalist, editor and publisher? If so, will you, in a follow-up Opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, be amplifying your belief that, as part of the ‘whistleblowing ecosystem’, Assange is in need of ‘protection’?

Your status as a journalist jailed in Egypt, as a Professor of Journalism, as spokesperson for ‘Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom and as writer of Opinion pieces such as “Julian Assange is no journalist” (12^thApril 2019) give you enormous power to shape Australian public opinion. Indeed, you have already done so. Over the past few months I have had several conversations with friends who read  your “Julian Assange is no journalist” piece and formed their opinions accordingly. My own experiences have made it possible for me to mount a powerful argument as to why Assange is a journalist but I cannot, as you can, reach a large readership with my counter-arguments.

A public declaration from yourself that Assange is a journalist  and Wikileaks a publisher will help demolish one of the arguments presented by those in the media who present his ‘non-journalist’ status to justify their refusal to support him. Only when the bulk of Australian journalists focus on Assange’s status as a journalist, facing the very real possibility of dying in a US jail, and leave aside questions relating to his character and personality, (including refraining from snide “Putin’s bitch” references) will Australian public opinion swing behind Julian. 

Until there is a change in public opinion, the Australian government – both sides of the political spectrum – will sit on the fence, unwilling to upset our ally, the United States. Only with a change in public opinion will Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese pluck up the courage to say to the UK government, “We request, in the most forceful manner, that you respect Julian Assange’s human and legal rights, the free speech rights that accrue to him as a journalist and publisher, and refuse to extradite him to the United States.”

I look forward to reading your next Opinion piece, Peter.

cheers

James