Is Julian Assange a journalist, Peter Greste?

Peter Greste, Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom

Dear Peter

Following on from my previous letters to you regarding Julian Assange.

Do you, in October 2019, stand by your assertion that Julian Assange is not a journalist?

This remains the official position of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, of which you are Spokesperson. 

Comments you have made this past few months suggest that you may be having second thoughts regarding Assange’s status as a journalist.

On 19^thAugust, Phillip Adams asked you the following question: 

“Do you think the extradition of an Australian publisher from anywhere in the world to the United States for publishing 100 per cent facts—not fake news—sets a dangerous precedent for all Australians, not just journalists but people on the web, social media?”

You responded with:

“I have wrestled with this a lot. What you are referring to, I guess, is a piece I wrote some time ago that suggested I do not consider Julian to be a journalist. I am very concerned about the implications of Julian Assange’s arrest and the extradition on a number of levels. I think there are issues and questions of due process. It is very difficult to imagine how Julian Assange under the current circumstances can get a fair trial, a fair hearing. I am very concerned about the implications of the way that the law is being used for journalism…Yes, I think there are some troubling concerns and I think we do need to be more actively engaged in understanding what those are and supporting Julian in that regard.”

In conversations with friends and others, in the months since your Sydney Morning Herald opinion piece was published, your declaration that Assange is not a journalist inevitably crops up. “Peter Greste says that Assange is not a journalist,”  they say. Given your high profile status as a journalist, your opinion carries weight with the public.  

When will you stop wrestling with the question of whether or not Assange is a journalist? Is the Alliance for Journalist’s Freedom also ‘wrestling’ with this question?

Some clarity on this will assist the Australian public in deciding to either support Assange or turn a blind eye to his fate. As you will be aware, and intimated in response to Phillip Adams’ question, Assange will not, if extradited to the United States, receive a fair trial. An almost certain ‘guilty’ verdict will result in his death in a US prison. 

The stakes are high and the time has come for yourself, the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, all Australian journalists and the public to place pressure on the Australian government, which assisted both you and I when we were imprisoned on bogus espionage charges, to likewise assist Julian Assange, whose only crime is that of being a journalist committed to speaking truth to power; of revealing the truth about US war crimes in Iraq.

If you, in your role as journalist, had been given access in 2010 to the Collateral Murder documents  published by Wikileaks, what would you have done with them? Publish and be dammed? I certainly would have. And so would many (most) of my friends and colleagues working in the 4^thEstate. You, I and many others could be in the position Assange is in now if we had made public the Collateral Murder materials. You and I and our colleagues could, in the future,  be facing death in a US prison, for doing nothing more than carrying out our professional responsibilities by speaking truth to power.

Please stop wrestling, Peter, and lend your voice to the growing band of Australians calling on the Australian government to do all in its power to prevent Assange’s extradition to the United States.

cheers

James Ricketson