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The Forum > Article Comments > Julian Assange: the freedom of free speech > Comments

Julian Assange: the freedom of free speech : Comments

By Stuart Rees, published 7/6/2012

A lesson from the Assange controversy is what we may learn about the nature of justice.

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Assange probably did the US government a favour because they obviously need to guard sensitive strategic information re: informants etc. More closely. Their slackness in this puts undercover operatives at risk. If they can’t trust the loyalty of their own soldiers however, I don’t know how they can prevent this in the future.
Assange being a media representative in the form of his internet website Wikileaks was indeed a Whistleblower( a nieve one).

He should have assumed some responsibility for what may have been in those documents before revealing them, maybe by handing them to the opposition parties or the senate for scrutiny first. A democracy has checks and balances in place against rogue governments, that’s why we have an elected opposition. Assange would have been better off following due process and letting the opposition do it’s job by letting them assess the documents first.

However the media as a whole Likes to break stories for the prestige and sale of their papers so how can Julian Assange be blamed.
I know he did hand the leaked information to the news media in America .

It comes down to a dilemma really, of where do governments draw the line on the freedom of speech of their soldiers? What if we were in a real stoush like World War2 and threatened with real annihilation and loss of country? Should freedom of speech only apply to off-shore, far off wars or cover all wars and how does a government draw the line? And can we fight nice gentlemanly wars where no innocents are killed? Is that even possible? Democracy is there, use it. Take it to the senate or opposition for security assessment.
Posted by CHERFUL, Friday, 8 June 2012 2:21:22 PM
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I agree with Maxat,Rhosty and David G. the article had touch fundamental issue not only for Julian Assange but in general the false and misleading so call democratically country who are posing as champion of liberty and freedom but are falling to see their own fault and deception.
In my thinking is wrong that nation who wanted to be leaders on Justice and freedom is using the tools of the guilty one.
A nation who practice torture, injustice and misleading are guiltier, not less of the ones that do such thing in the open without hypocrisy.
Australia not defending is citizen like Julian is giving up our freedom and be guilty of complicity with USA in this case.
Posted by luigi gigi, Friday, 8 June 2012 7:07:40 PM
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luigi gigi

The US may have practiced torture to a certain level, but their prisoners walked away still in one piece. The Al Qeada lot though, cut the throats of captives on TV while they screamed horribly.

Also there were bodies found in streets after these Arab freedom fighters had finished with them who had drill holes through their bodies after having been tortured with electric drills.
Makes American methods seems almost gentle.
Posted by CHERFUL, Friday, 8 June 2012 8:34:02 PM
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A few points:

To me the most astonishing thing about the WikiLeaks document dump is that there are no surprises. None. I can think of nothing in any of the documents released to date that I didn't know or suspect. Can anyone tell me of anything contained in any of the documents that should surprise me*?

It is psychologically interesting that the people who are most vocal in their defence of Assange are often those who howled the loudest at the "climategate" leaks and vice versa.

For the record I agree with both the climategate email dump and, with one reservation, with the WikiLeaks document dump. The reservation is that WikiLeaks should have taken steps to ensure that no lives were at risk as a result of releasing this information.

As Assange is not a US citizen I do not see how Americans can accuse him of treason. Palin etc are being ridiculous but then that's nothing new either.

I'm guessing that the Australian government is desperate for him not to return to Australia. How would they respond to a US request for extradition?

If the US Government has any sense they'll forget about Assange. Whatever damage was done has been done, cannot be undone and was, in any case, minor. His ability to do further damage seems to be limited to non-existent. Now would be a good time to let bygones be bygones and move on.

Unfortunately the likelihood of the US Government behaving sensibly in an election year is small.

*Before you take the challenge here's a little story. When I was teaching finance at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in the 1990s one of my students was regarded as a leader of the "Black firebrands" on campus. He proclaimed his hatred for America and his regrets at the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In confidence he asked me whether I could give him any tips on getting a job on Wall Street. He had his eye on Salamon.

Only a fool believes public figures mean what they tell the crowd.
Posted by stevenlmeyer, Saturday, 9 June 2012 4:38:44 PM
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Thinker 2
<Whistleblowing and the attempts to quell it, particularly out of the US. Assange's only crime is that of being a conduit for whistleblowers. Up till now at the very least his credibility remains intact . His authenticity and credibility have allowed so many whistle blowers opportunity to shed light on reality. In the US they call this espionage and make punishable by death.>

You say particularly in the US. How so? Julian Assange has not been executed by the US. Nor has the soldier who gave him the information, although he is on trial. How does this compare to Putin's Russia, where numerous journalists have been assassinated in recent times for trying to expose some of Russia's little humanitarian secrets. This soldier on trail in the US is very unlikely to be executed at all, although he may serve a jail sentence.

In fact there are hundreds more countries in the world who would have just taken Assange and the soldier out the back and shot them without giving them a trial at all. So I don't agree with your saying that execution for treason is particularly likely to happen in the US. In fact the opposite is true compared to many other non democratic regimes in the world
Posted by CHERFUL, Saturday, 9 June 2012 7:40:50 PM
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