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DESCRIPTION:10/8 Global Day Of Action for Julian Assange & All 
 Journalists\n\nhttps://bayaction2freeassange.org/worldwide-solidarity-event/\n\nHere 
 in the Bay Area please join us as we participate in this worldwide 
 solidarity event of the Surround Parliament human chain. We will meet at 
 noon on October 8th at Harry Bridges Plaza in San Francisco. Bring 
 #YellowRibbons4Assange, signs, your family & friends, or just yourself. We 
 will form a human chain of yellow ribbons, come rain or shine. If you 
 can’t make it to San Francisco, create a chain or stand alone in your 
 city and let us and/or @Candles4Assange know about it.\n\n\nOctober 8, 2022 
 - 12:00 pm\n\nHarry Bridges Plaza\nMarket St. and The Embarcadero\nSan 
 Francisco, CA 94111\n\n\nadmin@bayaction2freeassange.org\n\nSTOP THE U.S. 
 EXTRADITON OF ASSANGE!\n                                         \nU.S. 
 government is prosecuting Julian Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act to 
 criminalize anti-war journalism. Assange faces 175 yrs in a U.S. 
 prison.\n\nThis U.S. prosecution of a journalist is a death blow to the 
 First Amendment.\n\nJulian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, published the 
 2010 Iraq War Logs, showing evi- dence of U.S. war crimes.\n\nThese 
 documents won international journalism and peace awards.\n\nAssange 
 “published,” he did not “hack.” Witnesses testified in September 
 2020, that As- sange was careful to redact names.\n\nPentagon testified in 
 2013 that these documents put no one in harm’s way. WIKILEAKS HAS 100% 
 ACCURACY! \n\nJOURNALISTS SPEAK UP FOR 
 ASSANGE\nhttps://speak-up-for-assange.org/sign/\nJulian Assange, founder 
 and publisher of WikiLeaks, is currently detained in Belmarsh high-security 
 prison in the United Kingdom and faces extradition to the United States and 
 criminal prosecutionunder the Espionage Act. He risks up to 175 years’ 
 imprisonment for his part in making public the leak of US military 
 documents from Afghanistan and Iraq, and a trove of US State Department 
 cables. The ‘War Diaries’ provided evidence that the US Government 
 misled the public about activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and committed 
 war crimes. WikiLeaks partnered with a wide range of media organizations 
 worldwide that republished the War Diaries and embassy cables. The legal 
 action underway against Mr Assange sets an extremely dangerous precedent 
 for journalists, media organizations and the freedom of the press. \n\nWe, 
 journalists and journalistic organizations around the globe, express our 
 grave concern for Mr Assange’s wellbeing, for his continued detention and 
 for the draconian espionage charges. \n\nThis case stands at the heart of 
 the principle of free speech. If the US government can prosecute Mr Assange 
 for publishing classified documents, it may clear the way for governments 
 to prosecute journalists anywhere, an alarming precedent for freedom of the 
 press worldwide. Also, the use of espionage charges against people 
 publishing materials provided by whistleblowers is a first and should alarm 
 every journalist and publisher.\n\nIn a democracy, journalists can reveal 
 war crimes and cases of torture and abuse without having to go to jail. It 
 is the very role of the press in a democracy. If governments can use 
 espionage laws against journalists and publishers, they are deprived of 
 their most important and traditional defense – of acting in the public 
 interest – which does not apply under the Espionage Act. \n\nPrior to 
 being moved to Belmarsh prison, Mr Assange spent more than a year under 
 house arrest and then seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, 
 where he had been granted political asylum. Throughout this time he was 
 subjected to serious violations of his human rights, including having his 
 legally privileged conversations spied on by organizations taking direct 
 instruction from US agencies. Journalists visiting were subjected to 
 pervasive surveillance. He had restricted access to legal defense and 
 medical care and was deprived of exposure to sunlight and exercise. In 
 April 2019, the Moreno government allowed UK law enforcement officers to 
 enter the Ecuador embassy and seize Mr Assange. Since then he has been held 
 in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day and, according to 
 visitors, is “heavily medicated”. His physical and mental health have 
 seriously deteriorated.\n\nAs early as 2015 the United Nations Working 
 Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) determined that Mr Assange was 
 arbitrarily detained and deprived of his liberty, and called for him to be 
 released and paid compensation. In May 2019, the WGAD reiterated its 
 concerns and request for his personal liberty to be restored. \n\nWe hold 
 the governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, 
 Ecuador and Sweden accountable for the human rights violations to which Mr 
 Assange has been subjected. \n\nJulian Assange has made an outstanding 
 contribution to public interest journalism, transparency and government 
 accountability around the world. He is being singled out and prosecuted for 
 publishing information that should never have been withheld from the 
 public. His work has been recognized by the Walkley Award for Most 
 Outstanding Contribution to Journalism in 2011, the Martha Gellhorn Prize 
 for Journalism, the Index on Censorship prize, the Economist’s New Media 
 Award, the Amnesty International New Media Award, the 2019 Gavin MacFadyen 
 Award and many others. WikiLeaks has also been nominated for the UN Mandela 
 Prize in 2015 and for the Nobel Peace Prize seven times (2010-2015, 
 2019).\n\nMr Assange’s reporting of abuses and crimes is of historic 
 importance, as have been the contributions by whistleblowers Edward 
 Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner, who are now in exile or 
 incarcerated. They have all faced relentless smear campaigns waged by their 
 opponents, campaigns that have often led to erroneous media reports and a 
 lack of scrutiny and media coverage of their predicaments. The systematic 
 abuse of Mr Assange’s rights for the past nine years has been understood 
 and protested by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the International 
 Federation of Journalists and leading human rights organisations. But in 
 public discussion there has been an insidious normalising of how he has 
 been treated.\n\nUnited Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer 
 investigated the case and in June 2019 wrote:\n\n“it finally dawned on me 
 that I had been blinded by propaganda, and that Assange had been 
 systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed. 
 Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just 
 like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him 
 of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide. 
 And thus, a legal precedent is being set, through the backdoor of our own 
 complacency, which in the future can and will be applied just as well to 
 disclosures by The Guardian, the New York Times and ABC News”. \n\n“By 
 displaying an attitude of complacency at best, and of complicity at worst, 
 Sweden, Ecuador, UK and US governments have created an atmosphere of 
 impunity encouraging Mr Assange’s uninhibited vilification and abuse. In 
 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I 
 have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately 
 isolate, demonize and abuse a single individual for such a long time and 
 with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law.”\n\nIn 
 November 2019, Melzer recommended that Mr Assange’s extradition to US be 
 barred and that he be promptly released. “He continues to be detained 
 under oppressive conditions of isolation and surveillance, not justified by 
 his detention status (…) Mr Assange’s continued exposure to 
 arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing his life”, said 
 Melzer.\n\nIn 1898, French writer Émile Zola wrote the open letter 
 J’accuse…! (I accuse) to warn about the wrongful sentencing to life in 
 prison of a military officer named Alfred Dreyfus on espionage charges. 
 Zola’s stance entered history books and still today stands for our duty 
 to fight miscarriages of justice and to hold the powerful to account. This 
 duty is as necessary as ever today, when Julian Assange is being victimized 
 by governments and faces 17 charges[1] under the US Espionage Act, 
 legislation that also dates back over a hundred years. \n\nAs journalists 
 and journalists’ organizations that believe in human rights, freedom of 
 information and of the public’s right to know, we demand the immediate 
 release of Julian Assange. \n\nWe urge our governments, all national and 
 international agencies and fellow journalists to call for an end to the 
 legal campaign being waged against him for the crime of revealing war 
 crimes. \n\nWe urge our fellow journalists to inform the public accurately 
 about this abuse of fundamental rights. \n\n\nWe urge all journalists to 
 speak up in defense of Julian Assange at this critical time.\n\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/09/29/18852304.php
SUMMARY:Free Julian Assange NOW! Global Day Of Action
LOCATION:Harry Bridges Plaza\nBetween Ferry Building & Embaradero\nSan Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/09/29/18852304.php
DTSTART:20221008T190000Z
DTEND:20221008T200000Z
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