Our media have collectively failed by omission to uphold a fundamental principle in the NZ Media Council’s preamble.
Multi-award winning Australian publisher and founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange has been in arbitrary detention since 2012 — including 1773 days in solitary confinement in London’s Belmarsh prison, subject to “psychological torture” and “intimidation and reprisals” (UN) for publishing the US military’s own records of its serious,systematic breaches of the Geneva Conventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
New Zealanders For Julian Assange, an informal group set up in 2021, have been actively providing information, updates and encouraging media to report on this pivotal case in order to ensure New Zealanders be informed about what is arguably THE turning point in our civilisation, with serious implications for transparent, accountable democratic governance. Zero response.
The only realistic way NZers might substantially influence the abandonment of Assange’s imminent extradition is by a groundswell of public opinion demanding a diplomatic protest to the US and UK governments — which are ironically now condemning Russia for the death of Alexei Navalny — but, alas, by having refused/neglected/forgotten/to report on the case of Julian Assange, New Zealanders remain largely oblivious and unconcerned about the seriousness of this case. Go figure.
Alan William Preston
New Zealanders For
Julian Assange
