On World Press Freedom Day Amnesty International and other human rights and journalists’ organisations have re-doubled their demand that Julian Assange be set free.
Amnesty General Secretary Agnes Callamard called for the immediate release of Julian Assange at UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day opening ceremony. She said, “We need to resist double standards… It is not just what is happening in Iran or in Russia that should worry us, it is also what’s happening here, who is imprisoning Julian Assange?”
President of Committee to Protect Journalists, Jodie Ginsberg, speaking at the same event said, “The one thing the US could concretely do, is drop the charges against Julian Assange, its a charge that if brought to fruition, could effectively criminalize journalism everywhere.”
You can read Unesco’s Joint statement on freedom of expression here: https://www.unesco.org/en/days/press-freedom-2023/joint-statement
Stella Assange, Julian Assange’s wife, was speaking in Norway today at the invitation of PEN Norway for screening of the documentary Ithaka, the award winning documentary film about the campaign to free Assange.
The European Federation of Journalists have issued a statement declaring Assange to be a member of the IFJ, an organisation only open to journalists. The signed letter says: “We, the undersigned European unions and associations of journalists, join the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in calling on the US government to drop all charges against Julian Assange and allow him to return home to his wife and children.” The statement is significant because the US government case depends on denying that Assange is a working journalist.
In another blow to the US case against Julian Assange he has been made an honorary member of the French National Union of Journalists SNJ. A membership card will be sent to his family in the coming days.
Last Thursday during the International Festival of Civil Journalism Stella Assange received Pimentel Fonseca Award, for her courage in defending, through the case of Julian Assange, the right to freedom of the press of all journalists in the world, at the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies in Naples, Italy. “I am incredibly honored to receive this award, I think that every generation has a duty to take up the baton and pass it on to the next ones “ Stella said after receiving the award.
Source: dontextraditeassange.com
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