JOHN PILGER, jpilger2003@
Pilger is a renowned journalist and film-maker whose books and documentaries have won numerous awards including an Emmy and a British Academy Award.
He said Wednesday: “Julian Assange has now spent 1000 days in Belmarsh prison. His crime is truth and authentic, accurate, vital journalism. Washington’s attempt to extradite him would be farcical if it wasn’t so threatening for all journalists who do their job and call governments to account. Julian languishes in Belmarsh prison in London only because of the ruthlessness of great power and its determination to conceal its crimes from the public.”
Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is slated to be extradited to the U.S. for exposing documentation of U.S. government killings. Among the exposes that Assange is being prosecuted for is exposing video of the “Collateral Murder” killings by U.S. soldiers from a helicopter gunship mowing down Reuters staffers in Iraq. Reuters had requested the video and other evidence in 2007, when the attack occurred, but the U.S. government kept it secret until WikiLeaks made it public in 2010. Read John Pilger’s latest piece: “The judicial kidnapping of Julian Assange.”
Pilger also spoke out against former British Prime Minister Tony Blair being knighted: “Stand in solidarity with the men, women and children whose lives were lost or ruined in the criminal invasion of Iraq. Below is the petition calling for Blair’s knighthood to be rescinded. More than half a million have signed it. Make it millions.”
