Hypocrisy abounds as Assange languishes in prison on “World Press Freedom Day”

From WSWS:

On this year's World Press Freedom Day, sponsored annually by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), not a single speaker associated with UNESCO or World Press Freedom Day made mention of Julian Assange. UNESCO holds the event, it avows, to celebrate “the fundamental principles of press freedom, to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.” Those claims are hollow and duplicitous, as the facts demonstrate.  Indeed, one of the keynote speakers at the main celebration in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was the British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who is among those responsible for the brutal seizure and incarceration of Assange on April 11. The overt hatred and contempt towards Assange from the ruling elites is countered by the growing support from workers throughout the world, marked by two significant events this weekend. On Friday Julian Assange’s father, John Shipton, addressed a rally in Sydney organized by the Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition. The event was one of a number of protests around the world defending Assange on World Press Freedom Day. The next day, to mark May Day, the International Committee of the Fourth International held its sixth annual online May Day celebration, which was attended by workers from dozens of countries. A focus of the event was the organization of the working class in defense of Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning. We urge all readers of the WSWS and all those seeking to defend freedom of expression to watch the opening report, posted on the WSWS today. Fraternally, The World Socialist Web Site May Day 2019 Watch: The resurgence of class struggle and the fight for socialism Listen to David North's report In the not too distant future, when historians begin to reconstruct and explain the origins of the revolutionary convulsions of the first half of the 21st century, and attempt to identify the point at which the threat to the very survival of the capitalist system was clearly recognized by the ruling elites, the scholars may well draw their students’ attention to the annual meeting of the Milken Institute that was held in Los Angeles last week, on April 29-30, 2019. Full Report The latest on Julian Assange Politicians celebrate “World Press Freedom Day” as Julian Assange languishes in prison May 3 is World Press Freedom Day, sponsored annually by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). UNESCO holds the event, it avows, to celebrate “the fundamental principles of press freedom, to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.” Those claims are hollow and duplicitous, as the facts demonstrate. Read more Assange’s father tells demonstrators Australian government must secure son’s release Last Friday, protestors in Sydney were addressed by John Shipton, Julian Assange’s father, Socialist Equality Party election candidate Oscar Grenfell, barrister Greg Barns and other speakers. Shipton insisted that the Australian government immediately secure the release of the WikiLeaks publisher, journalist and Australian citizen. The Sydney demonstration, outside the US embassy in Martin Place and then the nearby Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade building, was held two days after Assange was sentenced in a British court to 50 weeks jail on bogus bail violation charges. Read more Internet Censorship Facebook escalates social media censorship with shutdown of far-right accounts On Thursday, Facebook banned the social media accounts of right-wing InfoWars publisher Alex Jones, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the alt-right figures Paul Joseph Watson and Milo Yiannopolous, right-wing nationalist Laura Loomer and self-described “pro-white” neo-Nazi candidate Paul Nehlen. The scrubbing of these individuals from both the Facebook and Instagram platforms was confirmed in a company statement to the media. “We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology. The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today.” Read more

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