Press Conference: SF Chronicle-End Your Silence On The Jailing And Extradition Of Julian Assange

9/22 Press Conference: SF Chronicle-End Your Silence On The Jailing And Extradition Of Julian Assange
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE

https://bayaction2freeassange.org/urgent-request-and-press-release/?uuid=54196e78-9016-4243-aeaf-dc1bd8f8ce54


Press Conference/Speak Out at SF Chronicle on
Wednesday September 22, 2022 12:00 Noon.
5th & Misson St. San Francisco

The continued incarceration and possible extradition of Australian journalist and publisher Julian Assange is a threat not only to all journalists in the world but publishers such as the SF Chronicle.

Using the Espionage Act, even though he is not a US citizen, the US government is prosecuting the supposed crime of releasing documents that expose war crimes and atrocities committed by the US war machine in Iraq.

Of course the perpetrators of the US crimes in Iraq have never been proscuted but the whistleblower Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, is being prosecuted.

We must raise our voices to defend whistleblowers and independent journalists being censored and persecuted for revealing the truth and reporting on issues that people need to know.

Assange is a member of the Australian journnalist’s union MEAA member since 2007. The Pacific Media Workers Guild, which represents journalists at the San Francisco Chronicle, and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have also calld for his freedom. Nearly all journalist unions throughout the world are demanding his freedom.

We urge the San Francisco Chronicle and all news publishers both print and online to join the call for his freedom.

For more information and to endorse contact info(at)ufclp.org
Also if you are a journalist and want to make a solidarity statement send it to us or come and speak out.

When:
Thursday, September 22, 2022 - 12:00 PM
Where:
San Francisco Chronicle
5th & Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

10/8 Worldwide Solidarity Event
Action In San Francisco

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW!
https://bayaction2freeassange.org/worldwide-solidarity-event/

Here 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.


October 8, 2022 - 12:00 pm

Harry Bridges Plaza
Market St. and The Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA 94111



San Francisco Labor Council Resolution For Julian Assange
https://sflaborcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/02-11-19Resolution-in-Support-of-the-Defense-of-WhistleblowerAssange.pdf

IFJ Free Assange: Julian Assange left trial early because of ill health
https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/article/free-assange-julian-assange-left-trial-early-because-of-ill-health.html

28 October 2021

On October 27, a gaunt-looking Julian Assange was able to follow only an hour of the hearing that would determine whether he is extradited to the United States. The Australian’s legal team opened the hearing seeking the court’s permissions that their client be allowed not to attend by video link because of ill health, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) reports.


Police officials stand guard as protestors in support of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange hold placards outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London during an appeal hearing by the US government against the UK's refusal to extradite him on October 27, 2021. The United States told a British court Wednesday that Julian Assange would not be held at a federal supermax prison, as it appealed a decision to block his extradition on the grounds he is a serious suicide threat. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
An hour in, the Wikileaks founder did appear before the camera, wearing an untucked white shirt and tie. Looking increasingly like his father, he seemed distracted and has visibly lost weight. White hair straggles to his shoulders and deep lines etch his face. Before sixty minutes had passed Assange appeared to indicate that he could not hear proceedings and requested to leave the video facility. He gathered his papers and left. In the afternoon he appeared to manage fewer than ten minutes on the video link.

This hearing arises from District Judge Vanessa Baraitser's dismissal of the US government application to extradite Assange – handed down last January. She found that conditions in US prisons created a significant risk that Assange would commit suicide. It would be ‘oppressive’ if he were incarcerated there, she ruled.

Yesterday’s hearing was to consider an application by the US to overturn Baraitser’s judgement.

James Lewis QC, acting for the US government told the court that since Judge Baraitser’s ruling the US government had offered significant assurances in respect of Assange’s treatment, should he face US justice. He committed that the Wikileaks founder would not be subject to ‘Special Administrative Measures’ (SAMS), and, if he were convicted, would be sent to his native Australia to see out his sentence.

SAMS is a form of prisoner management that keeps the most serious criminals in solitary confinement, with very limited access to family or lawyers. Lewis told the court that Baraitser’s ruling had been based on the erroneous expectation that Assange would inevitably face such conditions. Given the import that the judge attached to prison conditions, the US had now offered fresh assurances.

Lewis, who spoke for four hours, said that Baraitser had: misinterpreted the Extradition Act; given undue weight to the single psychiatrist who had detected significant suicide risk; and had been swayed by alarmist accounts of the likely length of sentence that Assange might face.

Edward Fitzgerald QC, who heads Assange’s defence, responded saying: “Mr Assange would inevitably be in solitary confinement if he is sent to the US. There is a significant increase in chance of suicide if you have Autistic Spectrum Disorder and there is an increase of the chance of suicide if you are in solitary confinement.”

Most of today’s hearing will be devoted to Fitzgerald’s detailed case for upholding the refusal.

A noisy crowd outside kept up chants throughout the hearing. Julian Assange’s partner, Stella Moris, told supporters that it was ‘unbearable’ sitting in court hearing the American’s representatives picking Julian to pieces.

For more information, please contact IFJ on +32 2 235 22 16

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 146 countries
Australian Unions Back Freedoom For Julian Assange
https://mobile.twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1387573071490523137

Troy Labor Council Resolution In Support of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks
https://unac.notowar.net/2019/05/05/troy-labor-council-resolution-in-support-of-julian-assange-and-wikileaks/
MAY 5, 2019UNAC EDITORFREE SPEECH, LABOR
Troy Labor Council voted on May 17 in favor of the following resolution to support Julian Assange and WikiLeaks:

Whereas, Assange and Wikileaks have released a vast trove of primary source material unlike anything that journalists have ever had such ready access to,

Whereas, Wikileaks releases have made evidence-based journalism more possible than ever before,

Whereas, Julian Assange and WIkileaks have helped expose the role of the US and other governments’ war crimes and violations of international law and,

Whereas, Assange and WikiLeaks have, in the Podesta emails, Vault 7, the Trade in Services Agreement, and many other releases, exposed the collusion between government officials, politicians, oligarchs, and corporations against the public interest, including even the survival of life on earth,

Whereas, the UK government has ripped Julian Assange out of Ecuador’s London Embassy and arrested by Theresa May’s government in the UK government and then most likely extradited to the United States for criminal prosecution and,

Whereas, the US government and the UK government refuse to prosecute any of the war criminals that have been exposed by the whistleblowing of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and,

Whereas, there is a systematic effort by the US government to harass, repress and jail reporters and whistleblowers who exposed corruption and criminal activities by government officials and,

Whereas, US politicians have called for the murder and torture of Julian Assange to silence him and,

Whereas, the Australia Media, Arts and Entertainment Alliance (MEAA) union made Julian Assange an honorary member for life, waived his fees, and called for the defense of his rights

Whereas, leading intellectuals and whistleblowers including Daniel Ellsberg, John Kiriakou, Ray McGovern, Chris Hedges, Vijay Prashad and Coleen Rowley have called for unity in support of Julian Assange,

Therefore be it resolved that the Troy Area Labor Council calls for the freedom of Julian Assange.