March Washington Memo
We brief Congress on Assange, UN Special Rapporteur for freedom of expression speaks out.
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Last week, I moderated what was likely the first in-person briefing on Capitol Hill on the Julian Assange case since the US government brought its indictment against the WikiLeaks founder. In a room filled to its capacity with Congressional staff, I asked Agnés Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, why the prestigious human rights group opposes Assange’s prosecution. The reasons she gave are too numerous to list here--speaking to the multifaceted nature of the case--but she cited the prosecution is a violation of:
the right to freedom of expression
the right of the public to know
freedom of information
our capacity to investigate and to get accountability for war crimes
Julian Assange’s right not to be tortured
Callamard was not the only speaker to bring a powerful message to Congress. The briefing, which was organized by Defending Rights & Dissent, also featured Jodie Ginsberg of the Committee to Protect Journalists and Jennifer Robinson, a member of Assange’s legal team since 2010. I asked Ginsberg to explain why the revelations Assange is on trial for are in the public interest. Ginberg noted that “the fact that they were published in five and more of the leading international news outlets around the world demonstrates'' the documents were in the public interest before recounting for the audience of Congressional staffers how she worked for Reuters in 2007 when two of her colleagues--Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen--were killed by a US Apache helicopter. Three years later, WikiLeaks made headlines the world over when they released video of the attack given to them by Chelsea Manning.