Innlegg på konferansen Safety of journalists

Forskergruppa MEKK ved OsloMet - storbyuniversitetet arrangerte for syvende gang en akademisk konferanse på UNESCOs dag for straffefrihet for angrep på journalister 2.-3. november 2021. Jeg holdt ett av åpningsforedragene som jeg gjengir her i sin helhet.

Opening talk 

It´s good to see you all together gathered in the common battle for  protecting freedom of expression and pay attention to the urgent issue of  the safety for journalists in a time when journalists are attacked world wide for doing their job. I will use my few minutes here to talk about what in my mind is the most urgent trial this decade for the protection of freedom of expression and the right for journalists and publisher  to reveal the truth, even if it hurts  the powerful. I am of course talking about the ongoing trial in London were USA wants to extradite Julian Assange for exposing true facts about war crimes in 2010 through WikiLeaks. He is charged on 18 points under the Espionage Act for revealing massive war crimes and human rights violations through tens of thousands of documents brought to him by the whistleblower Chelsea Manning who for this was sentenced to 35 years in prison (a punishment later reduced by a pardon from president Obama). None of the guilty behind the war crimes revealed have been charged or punished, whilst Assange face a possible sentence for 175 years in a high security prison. Assange’s extradition was denied in January of this year when District Judge Vanessa Baraitser agreed on most points with US on the right for US to punish for publishing secrets. She blocked the extradition because of high risk of suicide, well documented by expert witnesses and UNs raportuer for torture Niks Melzer.” The U.S. appealed that ruling to the UK’s High Court on the grounds that, it argued, the judge misapplied evidence as to Assange’s mental health. An appeal court in August lifted the ban on extradiction and new round in court hearing took place in High court last week, it dealt mainly with the issue of suicide danger. I followed the hearing on behalf of Norwegian PEN online and the hearing caught shockingly little attention the main stream media in Norway as well as other countries. The main person Julian Assange was denied access to the court and followed the court hearing online from his cell in high security Blemarsh prison. We just caught  a short of him and he look to be in a terrible condition.The serious consequence if an Australian citizen  could be arrested in third country brought to US and charged under legislation meant for spies during the first world war. If found guilty we should ask the obvious question: Who will be next? Yahoo news revealed this autumn  CIA plans to a kidnap/assassination plot against Assange when he was in the political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy. A Spanish court has revealed illegal surveillance in the embassy by the CIA 24/7 and thus compromised his privacy and privileged communication with his lawyers,  Mike Pompeo  has now called for prosecution of the 30 sources who have come forward with the information. Pompeo was former foreign minister during Donald Trump and head of CIA  Pompeo was a former head of CIA is key figure in the process against Julian Assange. President Obamas lawyers said that if Assange was to be charged the he must charge NEW York Times a due to First Amendment so he dropped the case President Trump didn´t care about first amendment and waged a war against journalists. US has now dropped to place 44 on the index of Freedom of expression. Since Joe Biden was vice president during the Obama administration his responsible for the use of Espionage act against whistleblowers. It was president Obama who started the practice to charge  whistleblowers under the Espioange Act. This summer Daniel Hale was sentenced to four years in prison for handing over information to a journalist with documentation of the consequenses  for the civilain peole as aresult of  US drone  war fare. If Assange is extradited critical a journalism against the superpower USA will have grave future. Later to day we will celebrate the Nobel Peace Price to two brave journalists. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021 to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. The price was well deserved. I together with my colleague Elisabeth Eide used our right as professor to nominate Julian Assange. Out argument was that revealing massive war crimes in the long run will promote peace. The suggestion was on the table and Jukian Assange should in my mind  have been the third prize winner.

I am also a member of the Norwegian UNESCO commission one of the co-hosts of this conference. I have some breaking news for you. I can announce that The Norwegian UNESCO-commission has sent a letter to the Norwegian foreign minister Anniken Huitfeldt and urged her to ask President Joe Biden to drop the case against Julian Assange and urge UK government to stop the extradition of Julian Assange. This is the only way to protect freedom of journalists and critical journalism. I wish you all a great conference.

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