AN OPEN LETTER TO PETER GRESTE
3.07.19
Dear Peter,
Do you still stand by your assertion, made in a Sydney Morning Herald opinion piece last April, that Julian Assange “is not a journalist, and WikiLeaks is not a news organisation”?
Assange has been a member of MEAA for the past 10 years, was awarded a Walkley for the ‘Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism’ in 2011, amongst many other journalism awards. In November 2011 the UK Hight Court described Assange as “…a journalist, well known through his operation of Wikileaks” and the US Army’s Counterintelligence Centre described WikiLeaks as a ‘news organisation’ and Assange as a ‘writer’ and ‘journalist’.
Even if it is still your contention that Assange is not a journalist, do you believe, on the basis of evidence available to you, that Assange, an Australian citizen, should be extradited to the United States to face espionage charges?
When I was imprisoned in Cambodia, also charged with espionage, you showed your compassion and used your influence as a journalist, who had likewise been charged with espionage and spent 400 days in an Egyptian prison, to alert the Australian public to my plight. You told Fran Kelly:
“You really can’t conceive of that length of time in prison until you actually have to confront it in all its stark reality… The Australian Government insists that it’s a defender of the basic democratic principles in the region, including the rule of law, due process, basic human rights. And if it wants to be taken seriously and with respect then it needs to forcefully stand by those values in cases like James’. I think the Government clearly needs to do more.”
You also said:
“In Egypt’s case, Australia had very few levers that it could pull. It’s got far more levers…in Cambodia’s case – diplomatic levers, economic levers and so on.”
When I was found guilty of espionage you wrote on twitter:
“Australian film-maker James Ricketson sentenced to six years jail in Cambodia. Outrageous affront to due process, freedom of the press and the rule of law.”
Along with Phillip Adams, Elizabeth Farrelly, John Pilger, Piers Akerman and other journalists who wrote or broadcast in relation to my case, you played an important role in generating public support for me. This, in turn, placed pressure on the Australian government to use all the diplomatic tools available to it to extricate me from prison. The government did eventually step up to the plate and, behind the scenes, make significant diplomatic efforts to help me. Three weeks after I received a 6 year jail sentence I was on a plane back to Australia.
Do you believe that Citizen Julian Assange is any less deserving of intervention on the part of the Morrison government than I was?
Do you believe that the Australian government is doing enough to protect Citizen Julian Assange’s basic human rights?
Do you believe that, as an Australian citizen, he is deserving of a 175 year jail sentence for doing nothing more, on the basis of the evidence available to us all in July 2019, than what a good investigative journalist/publisher does all the time?
Julian Assange turns 48 today. He has been locked up in an Embassy for 7 years – five times longer than you were locked up in Egypt and I in Cambodia Cambodia. We have both experienced what you refer to as the ‘stark reality’ of incarceration. I would not wish the experience on anyone ,and particularly not on a fellow journalist.
Again, Peter, thank you for the journalistic help you provided me in my time of extreme need. Please do the same for Julian Assange – as both an Australian citizen andas a journalist. Please join with the growing number of journalists worldwide who fear the ramifications, if Assange is extradited, for freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the health of democracies such as Australia’s, at a time when President Donald Trump has declared we journalists to be enemies of the people.
cheers
James
2nd letter to Peter Greste
18.07.19
Dear Peter
Following on from my ‘open letter’ to you of 2ndJuly.
‘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” (12thApril 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
3rd letter to 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 19th August, 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 4th Estate. 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
