Several U.S. Authorities Faced About U.S. Assange Hypocrisy on World Press Flexibility Day

Multiple U.S. Officials Challenged About U.S. Assange Hypocrisy on World Press Liberty Day

By Caitlin JOHNSTONE

Wednesday was World Press Flexibility Day, and it saw US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and Deputy State Department Spokesperson Vedant Patel confronted about the glaring hypocrisy of the Biden administration’s persecution of Julian Assange for the criminal activity of good journalism.

Throughout an appearanceat a World Press Flexibility occasion hosted by The Washington Post’s David Ignatius on Wednesday morning, Blinken was confronted by Code Pink activistsMedea Benjamin and Tighe Barry demanding justice for Assange before being quickly dragged off phase.

“Excuse us, we can’t utilize this day without calling for the flexibility of Julian Assange,” stated Benjamin, holding a sign stating “FREE JULIAN ASSANGE”.

The 2 were immediately hurried by numerous security staffers, and the audio from the phase was briefly cut.

“Stop the extradition request of Julian Assange,” Benjamin can be heard saying.

“2 hours and not one word about reporter Shireen Abu-Akleh, who was murdered by the Israeli profession forces in Palestine, not one word about Julian Assange,” stated Barry.

“We’re here to commemorate liberty of expression, and we just experienced it,” stated Ignatius without a trace of paradox once the dissent had been silenced. He then went back to the subject of how bad and awful the Russian federal government is for locking up American journalist Evan Gershkovich.

Then during a White House press instruction on Wednesday afternoon, Karine Jean-Pierre was asked a question by CBS News’Steven Portnoy that was so bothersome the press secretary flat-out stated she would not address it. “Advocates on Twitter today have actually been talking a lot about how the United States has actually participated in hypocrisy by discussing how Evan

Gershkovich is kept in Russia on espionage charges but the United States has Espionage Act charges pending against Julian Assange. Can you react to that criticism?” asked Portnoy.”What is the criticism?”asked Jean-Pierre.” Well, the criticism is that– the argument is that Julian Assange is a reporter who engaged in the publication of federal government documents,” Portnoy replied.” The United States is accusing him of a criminal offense under the Espionage Act, and that, therefore, the United States is losing the ethical high ground when it comes to the concern of whether a reporter engages in espionage as a function of his work. So can you respond to that? “”Look, I’m not going to speak with Julian Assange and that case from here,” said Jean-Pierre. And after that she didn’t. She simply dismissed Portnoy’s concern without description, then babbled for a while about things Biden has stated that are helpful of press liberties, then again said “I’m not going

to weigh in on comments about Julian Assange. ” This kind of “I’m not answering that, screw you “evade is an uncommon relocation for a White House press secretary.

They do not generally just come right out and say they decline to respond to the highly appropriate and quickly answerable concern a reporter simply asked; normally when the question is too troublesome they’ll either word-salad an overwelming non-response, state the response is the jurisdiction of another department, or state they’ll get back to them when they have more info. It’s not the standard for them to simply wave away the concern without even pretending to offer a reason for doing so. But really, what option did she have? As Wall Street Journal White House correspondent Sabrina Siddiqi just recently acknowledged on MSNBC, the task of the White House press secretary is not to tell the reality, but to “stay on message and manage the story .”There is nothing aboutthe Assange case that is on-message with the White Home story; just a few days ago Biden stated at the White Home Correspondents’Supper that”journalism is not a crime,”yet his persecution of Assange is intentionally developed to criminalize journalism. There’s simply no chance to reconcile the United States government’s story about itself with its efforts to normalize the extradition and persecution of journalists around the world under the Espionage Act. If your task is to make the White House look great, the only way to respond to questions of United States hypocrisy regarding the Assange case is not to react at all. Later on in the press conference, Jean-Pierre reacted to another reporter’s concerns about press liberties in China with a guarantee that the Biden administration will”hold liable the autocrats

and their enablers who continue to repress a totally free, independent media.” Also on Wednesday afternoon, AP’s Matt Lee pointed out the previously mentioned Code Pink demonstration earlier that day to question Deputy State Department Spokesperson Vedant Patel about Assange, and was met with a comparable quantity of evasiveness. “So then can I ask you, as was raised perhaps a bit quickly

at the very start of his remarks this morning, whether the State Department relates to Julian Assange as a journalist who would be covered by the ideas embodied in World Press Flexibility Day? “asked Lee.”The State Department believes that Mr. Assange has actually been charged with serious criminal conduct in the United States, in connection with his supposed function in among the largest compromises of categorized details

in our country’s history, “Patel responded.”His actions risked serious damage to US national security to the advantage of our enemies. It put named human sources to serious and imminent risk and threat of severe physical harm and approximate detention. So, it does not matter how we categorize any person, however this is– we view this as a– as something he’s been charged with serious criminal conduct. “”Well, but it does matter in fact, which’s my question. Do you believe that he is a journalist or not?”asked Lee.”Our view on Mr. Assange is that he’s been charged with serious criminal conduct in the United States,”said Patel.” Yeah, however anyone can be charged with anything,” Lee responded.”Evan Gershkovich has been charged with a serious criminal offense in Russia, and you say that he is a journalist, and he is certainly. And I just want to know whether you, the State Department– no matter any charges that he deals with– think that he is a journalist, or he is something else.””The United States does not go around arbitrarily apprehending people, and the judicial oversight and checks and balances that we have in our system versus the Russian system are a little bit different,”

stated Patel, before once again repeating his line that Assange has actually been charged with a really major criminal offense.” Okay.

So, generally, the bottom line is that you do not have an answer. You won’t state whether you think he is a reporter or not, “Lee responded. Again, Patel was left with no safe responses to Lee’s questions, since of course Assange is indisputably a reporter. Publishing details and reporting that is in the public interest is exactly the thing that journalism is; that’s why Assange has actually won a lot of awards for journalism. Attempting to compete that Assange is not a reporter is an unwinnable argument

. Later in that very same press conference Patel was challenged on his claim that Assange harmed United States nationwide security by reporter Sam Husseini.”You refer to WikiLeaks allegedly damaging United States nationwide security, “stated Husseini. “Individuals might keep in mind that WikiLeaks came to prominence because they launched the Collateral Murder video. And what that showed was United States military mowing down Reuters press reporters– employees in Iraq. Reuters repeatedly asked the United States Federal government to divulge such information about those killings, and the United States government repeatedly refused to do so. Just then did we know what occurred, that the US helicopter gunship mowed down these Reuters workers, through the Collateral Murder video? Are you saying that disclosure of such criminality by the US government impinges US nationwide

security?” “I’m not going to parse or enter specifics,” Patel said, previously again duplicating his line that Assange stands implicated of severe criminal activities in such a way that damaged United States nationwide security. Journalist Max Blumenthal tweeted about Patel

‘s remarks,”According to this State Dept flack , Julian Assange‘s jailing is warranted due to the fact that he’hurt US nationwide security.’ However Assange is not an American citizen. By this reasoning, the US can kidnap and indefinitely apprehend any foreign reporter who angers the US nationwide security state.”It is good that activists and journalists have actually been doing so much to highlight the United States empire’s hypocrisy as it crows self-righteously about its love of press freedoms while persecuting the world’s most well-known journalist for doing great journalism. Highlighting this hypocrisy reveals that the US empire does not in reality care about press freedoms at all, conserve just to the degree that it can pretend to care about them to wag its finger at federal governments it does not like. Assange exposed lots of aspects of our rulers during his work with WikiLeaks, however none of those discoveries have been as significant as what he’s required them to reveal about themselves in the lengths that they will go to silence a journalist who tells troublesome truths. caityjohnstone.medium.com