Assange: 1502 Days of Prison Following a Decade of Earlier Persecution
Stella Assange and Jennifer Robinson at the Australian National Press Club
[Image: Mr. Assange’s tenacious and dedicated wife Stella speaks at the National Press Club of Australia with Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson, 2023-05-22.]
Published: 2023-05-22
Updated 2023-05-23: inclusion of Stella’s interview on ABC’s radio national.
Pass
Rather than re-state the events of the 13 years of Julian Assange’s persecution I shall forgo the effort and relieve you of the burden of reading it. If you are relatively new to the newsletter search for Assange to find all of the previous coverage. At any search engine enter: assange site:yesxorno.substack.com
National Press Club and the Coming Rally
Mr. Assange's devoted wife Stella has just given a powerful speech to the National Press Club of Australia. She was joined by Julian's long serving lawyer Jennifer Robinson.
Consortium News have taken tweets by Julian's brother Gabriel Shipton and published the text of Stella's speech. The Australian national broadcaster (ABC) have published the video of the event at the Press Club (see Sources). Seeing as I'm back in Aus I am glad to be able get this breaking news to you quickly.
A rally will be held in Sydney's Hyde Park this coming Wednesday the 24th May. The rally starts at the fountain at 10:00 with speakers addressing the gathering from 10:30. All are welcome. Bring whistles or whatever, say the organizers. Lets make some noise!
Attending will be Stella Assange, John and Gabriel Shipton, David McBride (Australian Army Lawyer whistleblower), Senator Peter Whish-Wilson (a member of the cross-party group supporting the Free Assange/Bring Assange Home campaign) and others.
Your author feels an opportunity for some actual reporting, and a showing of solidarity. And why not? The weather forecast is clear skies, a gentle breeze and 20° C, a perfect Sydney Autumn day.
Update
An Interview on Radio National’s “Breakfast”
Stella was afforded an interview on the ABC's(*) national radio morning political news program, Breakfast. The interviewer Patricia Karvelas displayed the paucity of quality political interviewers at the national broadcaster by the standard of her introduction and questions. "Were you disappointed to not speak with the Prime Minister?"
Stella used the interview to focus on her visit's objectives. She and those around her wish to acknowledge and support the Australian government's call for a conclusion to be reached in the political case against Julian, meaning releasing her husband and father to her children, who featured so prominently in her speech the previous day. As noted at the top of a recent article the leadership of both major Australian political parties are united in this call for a conclusion. Stella’s objective in Australia dovetails with her husband's persecution as a journalist having entered the political field as the US presidential primaries begin. Her second focus, directly relating to the first, is to thank the Australian press for maintaining her husband's plight in the "minds of the Australian people" and to thank the Australian public for their support and engagement.
While skirting the innocuous questions Stella took a moment to mention the recent meeting between the cross-party "Friends of Julian Assange" parliamentary group with the USA ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy. She commented "I understand that was a productive meeting. These are signs that there is a change of attitude.” She continued:
Again, this case is not in the interests of the Biden administration. I am convinced that Biden does not want this case to be part of his legacy, and it is extremely unpopular in the United States.
Note
Henceforth, I'll switch my notation for ABC. Previously, I would write "ABC (Australia)" to disambiguate the national broadcaster from the commercial media organisation registered in the USA. In future "ABC" means the Australian organisation and "ABC (US)" means the other.
Sources
Stella Assange at the Press Club and Hyde Park Rally, PEN Melbourne, 2023-05-20
Amnesty Contingency @ Julian Assange Rally, Amnesty International (Australia), (no date of publication)
Stella Assange - Lawyer and Human Rights Defender, National Press Club of Australia, 2023-05-22
Stella Assange in Australia: Bring Julian Assange Home, Consortium News, 2023-05-22
Stella Assange 'encouraged' about securing Julian's release, Patricia Karvelas interviews Stella Assange, Radio National (ABC) Breakfast, 2023-05-23
The ABC's digital publishing tends to be geo-IP fenced (limiting distribution to devices with an Australia IP address). However, I dug up the seemingly open MP3 for the interview from their digital distributor, Akamai.
IN FULL: Stella Assange, Jennifer Robinson address National Press Club on Julian Assange | ABC News, ABC (Australia), 2023-05-22
Jump to 00:04:02 to skip the introduction
Culture
Steal My Kisses, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals (from the album Burn to Shine, 2000), Ben Harper, uploaded 2017-07-23
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Comments: on topic, no abuse.
It is unbelievable that this kind of persecution can be allowed to persist. It is indicative that there exists a great evil.
I think he Assange is being used to put fear into people, i.e. to terrorize whistleblowers who have evidence and want to expose the rot that has penetrated so deep that it will cause massive disruption of the fraud that takes place behind the scenes.
A perfect example of why protectionism is so evil as was described Legal Plunder in "The law" by Frédéric Bastiat .
"Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law—which may be an isolated case—is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system."