Assange - la sintesi del discorso in italiano - Privacy e crittografia ineludibili

Sintesi italiana da Mistral:

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Mr chairman esteemed members of the Parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe ladies and gentlemen the transition from years of confinement in a Maximum Security Prison to being here before the representatives of 46 Nations and 700 million people is a profound and a surreal shift the experience of isolation for for years in a small cell is difficult to convey it strips away one's sense of self leaving only the raw essence of existence I am yet not fully equipped to speak about what I have
endured the Relentless struggle to stay alive both physically and mentally nor can I speak yet about the
deaths by hanging murder and medical neglect of my fellow prisoners I apologize in advance if my words falter or if my presentation lacks the Polish you might expect from such a distinguished Forum isolation has taken its toll which I am trying to unwind and expressing myself in the setting is a
challenge however the gravity of this occasion and the weight of the issues at hand compel me to set aside my reservations and speak to you directly I have traveled a long way literally and figuratively to be before you today before our discussion or answering any questions you might have I wish to thank pace for its 2020 resolution which stated that my imprisonment set a dangerous precedent for journalists and noted that the UN special rep rep on torture called for my release I'm also grateful for Pace's 2021 statement expressing concern over credible reports that us officials discussed my assassination again calling for my prompt release and I commend the legal Affairs and human rights committee for commissioning a renowned rapur soona
ia's daughter to investigate the circumstances surrounding my detention and conviction and the consequent implications for human rights however like so many of the
efforts made in my case whether they were from parliamentarians presidents prime
ministers the pope un officials and diplomats unions legal and medical professionals academics activists or citizens none of them should have been necessary none of the statements resolutions reports films articles events fundraisers protests and letters over the last 14 years should have been necessary but all of them were necessary because without them I never would have
seen the light of day this unprecedented Global effort was needed because the legal protections of the legal protections that did exist many existed only on paper were not effective in any remotely reasonable
time I eventually chose Freedom over unrealizable Justice after being detained for years and facing 175e sentence with no effective
remedy Justice for me is now precluded as the US government insisted in writing into its plea agreement that I cannot file case at the European Court of Human Rights or even a
Freedom of Information Act request over what it did to me as a result of its Expedition request I want to be totally clear I am not free today because the
system worked I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to
journalism I plead guilty to seeking information from a source I plead guilty to obtaining information from a source and I pleed guilty to informing the public what that information was I did not plead guilty to anything else I hope my testimony today can serve to highlight the weakness the weaknesses of the existing safeguards and to help those whose cases are less visible but who are equally vulnerable as as I emerge from the dungeon of B Marsh the truth now seems less discernable and I regret how much ground has been lost during that time
period how expressing the truth has been undermined attacked weakened and diminished I see more impunity more secrecy more retaliation for telling the
truth and more self-censorship it is hard not to draw a
line from the US government's prosecution of me it's Crossing Crossing the Rubicon by internationally criminalizing journalism to the chill climate for freedom of expression that exists now when I founded Wikileaks it was driven by a simple dream to educate
people about how the world works so that through understanding we might bring about something better having a map of where we are lets us understand where we might go knowledge empowers us to hold power to account and to demand Justice where
there is none we obtained and published truth about tens of thousands of hidden casualties of war and other unseen Horrors about programs of assassination rendition torture and mass surveillance we revealed not just when and where these things happened but frequently the policies the agreements and the structures behind them when we published collateral murder the infamous gun camera footage of a US Apache helicopter crew eagerly blowing to Pieces Iraqi journalists and their Rescuers the visual reality of Modern Warfare shocked the world but be also
used interest in this video to direct people to the classified policies for when the US military could deploy lethal force in Iraq how many civilians could and how many civilians could be killed before gaining higher approval in fact 40 Years of my potential 175e sentence was for obtaining and releasing those
policies the Practical political Vision I was left with after being immersed in the world's Dirty Wars and secret operations is simple let us stop gagging torturing and killing each other for a
change get these fundamentals right and other political economic and scientific processes will have space to C will have space to take care of the
rest Wikileaks work was deeply rooted in the principles that this assembly stands for our journalism elevated Freedom of Information and the Public's right to
know it found its natural operational home in Europe I lived in Paris and we had formal corporate registrations in France and in Iceland our journalistic and Technical staff was spread throughout Europe we publish to the world from servers based in France in Germany and in Norway but 14 years ago the United States military arrested one of our Alle
alleged wh whistleblowers private first class Manning a US intelligence analyst based in Iraq the US government currently launched an investigation against me and my colleagues the US government illicitly sent planes of agents to Iceland paid bribes to an Informer to steal our legal and journalistic work product and without formal process pressured Banks and financial services to block our subscriptions and to freeze our accounts the UK government took part in some of this retribution it admitted at the European Court of human rights that it had unlawfully spied on my UK lawyers during this time ultimately this harassment was legally groundless President Obama's justice
department chose not to indict me recognizing that no crime had been committed the United States had never before prosecuted a publisher for publishing or obtaining government information to do so would require a
radical and ominous reinterpretation of the US Constitution in January 2017 Obama also commuted the sentence of Manning who had been convicted of being one of my sourcers however in February 2017 the landscape changed dramatically president Trump had been elected Ed he
appointed two wolves in Maga hats Mike Pompeo a Kansas congressman and former arms industry executive as CIA director and William bar a former CIA officer as us attorney general by March 2017 Wikileaks had exposed the cia's infiltration of French political parties it's spying on French and German leaders it's spying on the European Central Bank European economics Ministries and its standing orders to spy on French industry as a
whole we revealed the cia's vast production of malware and viruses its subversion of Supply Chains It's subversion of antivirus software Cars Smart TVs and iPhones CIA director Pompeo launched a campaign of Retribution it is now a matter of public record that under pompeo's explicit Direction the CIA Drew up plans to
kidnap and to assassinate me within the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and authorized going after my European colleagues subjecting us to theft hacking attacks and the plan ing of false information my wife and my infant son were also targeted a CIA asset was permanently assigned to track my wife
and instructions were given to obtain DNA from a six-month-old Sons nappy this is the testimony of more than 30 current and former US intelligence officials speaking to the US press which has been additional cooperated by records seized in a prosecution bought against some of the CIA agents involved the cia's targeting of myself my family and my associates through aggressive extrajudicial and extr territorial means provides a rare insight into how powerful intelligence organizations engage in transnational repression such repressions are not unique what is unique is that we know so much about this one
due to numerous whistleblowers and to to judicial investigations in Spain this assembly is no stranger to extraterritorial abuses by the
CIA Pace's groundbreaking report on CIA Renditions in Europe exposed how the CIA operated secret detention centers and conducted unlawful Renditions on European soil violating human rights and international law in February this year the alleged source of some of our CIA Revelations former CIA officer Joshua Schulte was sentenced to 40 years in prison under conditions of extreme isolation his windows are blacked out and a white noise machine plays 24 hours a day over his door so that he cannot even shout through it these conditions are more severe than those found in Guantanamo Bay but transnational repression is also
conducted by abusing legal processes the lack of effective
safeguards against this means that Europe is vulnerable to having its Mutual legal assistance and Expedition treaties hijacked by foreign powers to go after dissenting voices in Europe in Michael pompeo's Memoirs which I read in my prison cell the former CIA director bragged about how he pressured the US attorney general to bring an expedition case against me in response
to our Publications about the
CIA indeed exceeding to pompeo's requests the US attorney general reopened the investigation against me that Obama had closed and rearrested Manning this time
as a witness Manning was held in a prison for over a year finded $1,000 a day in a formal attempt to coers her into providing secret testimony against me she ended up attempting to take her own life
we usually think of attempts to force journalists to testify against their sources but Manning was now a source been forced to testify against their journalist by December 2017 CIA director Pompeo had got his way and the the US government issued a warrant to the UK for my Expedition the UK government kept the
warrant secret from the public for two more years while it the US government and the new president of Ecuador move to shape the political the legal and the
Diplomatic grounds for my arrest when powerful Nations feel in entitled to Target individuals beyond their borders those individuals do not stand a chance unless there are strong safeguards in place and a state willing to enforce them without this no individual has a
hope of Defending themselves against the vast resources of that a state aggressor can deploy if the situation if the situation were not already bad enough in my case the US government asserted a danger Dangerous new Global legal position only US citizens have free
speech rights Europeans and other nationalities do not have free speech rights but the US claim its Espionage Act still applies to them regardless of where they are so Europeans in Europe must obey us secrecy law with no defenses at all as far as the US government is concerned An American in Paris can talk about what the US government is up to
perhaps but for a French man in Paris to do so is a a crime with no defense and he may be expedited just like
me now that one foreign government has forly asserted that Europeans have no
free speech rights a dangerous precedent has been set other powerful states will inevitably follow suit the war in Ukraine has already seen the criminalization of journalists in Russia but based on the precedent set in My Expedition there is nothing to stop Russia or indeed any other state from targeting European journalists Publishers or even social media users by claiming that they domestic secrecy laws have been violated the rights of journalists and Publishers within the European space are seriously threatened transnational repression cannot become the norm here as one of the world's two
great Norm setting institutions Pace must act the criminalization of news Gathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere I was forly convicted by a foreign power for for asking for receiving and Publishing truthful information about that power while I was in Europe the fundamental issue is simple
journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs journalism is not a crime it is a
pillar of a free and informed Society [Applause] Mr chairman distinguished delegates if Europe is have a future where the
freedom to speak and the freedom to publish the truth are not privileges enjoyed by a few but rights guaranteed to all then it must act so that what has happened in my case never happens to
anyone else I wish to express my deepest gratitude to this assembly to the conservatives social Democrats liberals leftists greens and independents who have supported me throughout this ordeal and to the countless individuals who have advocated tirelessly tirelessly for my release it is heartening to know that in a world often divided by ideology and interests there remains a shared commitment to the protection of essential human Liberties freedom of expression and all that flows from it is at a dark Crossroad I fear that unless institutions like Pace wake up to the
gravity of the situation it will be too late let us all commit to doing our part to ensure that the light of Freedom never dims that the pursuit of truth will live on and that the voices of the
many are not silenced by the interests of the
[Applause] few thank you Mr Assange for that contribution to our proceedings I will now open the floor to members of the committee I would remind everyone that questions can only be raised by members of the committee of legal Affairs and human rights as I indicated before we began I will allow one question from each member and give the floor back to Mr Assange to reply to each of the questions Mr Assange we're not entirely familiar with the plea that you were made to enter into and if there are
questions asked which you feel it would not be appropriate to answer please don't hesitate to indicate and that will be understood uh could I call upon Miss bear uh to ask a question thank you yeah thank you very much uh for for being with us for for sharing your testimony uh as far as I understood um neither UK courts nor the the European Court of Human Rights um get got any final decision in your case I on the one hand I would like very personally to know how this feels for you and on the other case I would like to know whether you have
any suggestions uh systematically legally how cases like yours could really be settled um in in a in a legal system that works correctly and properly after 14 years detained in the UK including over 5 years in a Maximum Security Prison and facing a 175e sentence uh with the prospect of years more in prison before being able to uh have a shot at the European Court of Human Rights I uh accepted uh a plea offer from the United States that would Release Me from prison immediately uh the United States insisted um that I not be allowed to take a case in relation to what had happened to me uh in relation to its extradition proceedings nor that I could even file a Freedom of Information Act request uh on the US government uh to see what was done there will never be a hearing into what has happened um and that's why um it's so important that uh Pace Acts the uncertainty within Europe as to the
defenses that can be used by journalists here to protect themselves from transnational repression and Expedition um if left in its current state will inevitably be abused by other states um so Norm setting institutions like Part Pace must move to make the situation clear that what happened to me cannot happen again thank you uh Miss novika uh Mr Assange it is great to have you today um at the committee uh meeting um in fact I um I'm I don't want to ask about the past more or less which past but pass is still the um uh the the
current yeah it's not it's not finished yet of course but I wanted to ask you
whether you believe that our proceedings here in the Council of uh Europe in case
and hopefully uh the report pre prepared by sunna do is going to be accepted at the plenary session that will reverse the negative impact that your case had on on the position of whistleblowers and the right to expression uh globally that really you hope for that uh that in in case we the report is uh uh is going to
be accepted uh um and your visit here to Parliament will in a way will um have
this positive um aspect and uh uh will improve the situation in in this regard of the the rights of journalist and so on but my um but also I would like to
add how you visualize your life now after your case I'm not asking very much about your private plans but in general what what do you think what you are
planning to do basically thank you well I think that I I am here because I believe it is an essential first step for Pace to act uh to get the ball rolling uh to address the problems of transnational repression and also to make it clear that National Security journalism is possible within European borders um as for my read adaptation to the Big Wide World outside of house
arest and Embassy Siege and Maximum Security Prison it sure takes some
adjustment um it's not simply the spooky sound of electric cars they are very spooky um but it's the it is also the
change in the society the where we once produced a important uh where we once released a
important war crimes videos um that stirred public debate now every day there are live streaming Horrors from the Wars in Ukraine and the war in Gaza hundreds of journalists have been killed in Gaza and Ukraine
combined the impunity seems to
mount and it is still uncertain what we can do about it my readaptation to the world of course includes some
positive but still tricky things becoming a father again to
children who have grown up without me becoming a husband again even dealing with a
mother-in-law these are trying family issues no she's she's a very lovely woman I like her I like her very [Laughter] much thank you Mrs Assange uh could I call upon Mr Klein vaker please yes thank you Mr President uh back to sad issue um how well in your experience
does political Asylum really work in today's world political Asylum is an absolutely essential relief valve for human rights abusers within states that people can leave a state that is persecuting them not only saves individual lives it provides a mechanism where
journalists can continue to report on their societies after they have been hounded out ultimately the threat of people leaving a
state uh is what in the final analysis controls its be Its Behavior um we have seen examples in history of states that made it difficult or impossible for people to
leave and we can see how the situation for people living there
collapsed there must be competition between states uh to be good places for people
to live and to
work the assault on Asylum through means of transnational repression it's another matter in my case it was difficult to find a state
that would give Asylum that I was able to get to there is a big gap in the Asylum system for people were not fleeing their own state
but fleeing an ally of that state or any third state that was my case Asylum law does not easily cover the case
where say an Australian is fleeing persecution by the United States or we could imagine a kazakhstani fing persecution by Russia or China I was not able to apply for Asylum within the UK of course the UK has its own particular political angle it might have
been difficult to convince the courts to give me or in fact anyone asylum in relation to the United States in the UK but there wasn't even a chance because citizens from third States uh under the 1951 con vention as it's implemented in most European States cannot apply for Asylum thank you Mr Assange uh Mr honko would you like to ask a question please
thank you very much um Mr s um I'm so happy to see you here to see Stella as well um and thank you for reminding what uh Pace did in the last four years um uh starting with the hearing we had in January 2020 with your father John chipton uh with Neil melzer the UN General reporter on torture and very uh important other persons and three times uh I think this assembly made a clear position calling for the prompt release uh and I think uh um this assembly can a bit be proud of it because it failed in other International State organizations there were attempts as well in the uh European Union uh parliament in the OS but none of those could uh um had had enough courage to to to make a a clear statement um not enough geopolitical diversity sorry perhaps not enough geopolitical diversity maybe maybe maybe um that's so I'm I'm I'm very happy um uh maybe a question um on uh the extra jural jurisic uh um repression uh you you talked about in the end because this is one of the most shocking for me that there is a law in the US on freedom of speech which is not uh for uh other citizens but there are laws that can be applied to other citizens what could we
do as parliamentary assembly or uh as uh Council of Europe of European states to
counter this thank you Mr hunka Mr range in the final UK high high court case uh which Ian and the US uh appealed against I won Under the basis of nationality discrimination that is in the UK extradition act you're not meant to discriminate on uh at trial or during a penalty phase against someone on the basis of their nationality the US tried different tricks to get around that in the UK system and it was uncertain whether we
whether I or the United States would ultimately Prevail however there is nothing in the European Charter that prevents nationality discrimination in relation to Expedition so this is a small protection that was hard to use within the UK Expedition act but it's not clear that it exists in most European States thank you uh Miss uh mckinon thank you Mr chair and thank you
Mr Assan that you are here uh Bas has done work on transnational repression where States go after someon in another state in this case in your case uh there
are these very troubling allegations about the CIA monitoring and even considering assassination can you comment more on those and um how do you yourself see your status uh were you a political prisoner the first part of your question was about the CIA the second part was about do I see myself as a political Pres um answering the first one first yes I was a political prisoner the political basis uh for the US government's retributive acts against me was in relation to publishing the truth about what the US government had done then in a formal legal Sense Once
the us proceeded with its legal retribution uh it used the Espionage Act a classic uh political offense uh in relation to the cia's um campaign of transnational repression against Wikileaks uh we felt that something was going on at the time there were there were many small signs that came
together but uh having a ominous feeling and some subtly put tips from a Whistleblower in one of the
um security contractors that the CIA had contracted didn't give me the full and disturbing picture which later emerged it is a interesting example
where an intelligence organization has targeted an investigative organization wikileak um as a result of our investigations a criminal case in Spain and in particular work done by us journalists which under the precedent that has been established in my case
might well now be themselves criminal um detailed information about out the actions of the CIA took came out those details involved the testimony of more than 30 current or former US intelligence officials um a there are
two um resulting processes a criminal case in Spain with a number of victims including my wife
my son people who came to visit me at the embassy lawyers journalists uh and a civil suit in the United States against the
CIA in the United States the CIA has in response to that civil suit declared formally by the CIA director and the Attorney General State
Secret's privilege to knock out the case the
claim is that the CIA may have a defense but that defense is classified and uh so that the case the civil case
cannot go forward so it's complete impunity uh within the US system thank you uh Mr rakan could I invite you to ask a question Mr Assange if you could go back in time would you do everything the same
and if not what would you do differently I'm not asking just in terms of personal cost that you suffered but also in terms of Effectiveness or impact of what you try to do thank you this is a very deep question about Free
Will um why do people do things when they do
them looking back we were often constrained by our resources a number of Staff by secrecy uh that was necessary to protect our sources um if I could go back and have a lot of extra resources of course uh political approaches media approaches uh could have maximized even further the impact of the revelations that we made um but I suppose your question is is trying to say well were there any knobs that could be turned in hindsight uh of course thousands of small things um I was not from the United Kingdom I had a good friend in the United Kingdom Gavin mcfadin who was an American journalist um a very good man but it took me time to when I once I was trapped in the United Kingdom it took me time to understand what UK Society was about who you could trust who you couldn't trust [Music] the different types of um Maneuvers that are made uh in that Society um and uh there are different Media Partners that uh perhaps we um could have chosen differently uh thank you uh Mr chope could I invite you to address a
question you were the subject of a European arrest warrant issued by Sweden to what extent do you think that European arrest warrants are being used as tools of repression and to what extent do you
think the rules could be changed so that they can no longer be used for that purpose the European arrest warrant system was introduced post September 11 with the political rationale that it would be used for the fast transfer of Muslim terrorists between European States the
first European arrest warrant that was issued was issued by Sweden for a drunk driver we must understand that when we pick a disfavored group uh Muslims at that time
and say well this repressive legislation it's only going to be for them uh inevitably um bureaucrats elements of the security state will seize upon those measures and apply them more broadly Injustice to one person spreads soon enough to most people um I don't know how the
statistics on how often restorants are abused um I was there was an attempt to
exodite me without any charge from the United Kingdom by Sweden um the UK government subsequently changed the law to prevent Expedition without charge but in its Amendment uh to the acquisition legislation it included a
writer to make sure that it didn't apply to
me uh thank you uh Mr crookton could I invite you to uh address uh a question to Mr Assange thank you thank you very much thank you very much Mr Assange for uh all the answers to many of our questions uh I am like many of our my colleagues here very happy to see you
here and uh knowing you out of prison uh you were imprisoned you said rightly for doing your job the job that we all here
expect you to do namely being a journalist you investigated and you published your findings but it is shocking to me and to many of us to see how long the arm of Us justice is that can get a grip on you even here in Europe and of course this raises questions that we will address tomorrow in Mrs Eva's excellent report but um can I ask you a personal uh question were you aware before um uh all this were you
a aware of how little your basic rights as a citizen but also as a journalist were protected uh in Europe and what if I may add another question what do you
think will be the effect on journalism as a whole uh from your case thank you we performed a legal analysis to to understand what the
abilities and limitations were within Europe for publishing documents from a number of different countries including the United States um we understood that in theory article 10 uh should protect um journalists in Europe similarly looking at the US First Amendment to its Constitution um the that no publisher had ever been prosecuted for publishing classified information from the United States either domestically or internationally um I expected some kind of harassment legal process I was prepared to fight for that I believe the value of these applications were such um that is okay to have that fight and that we would Prevail because we had understood um what was legally possible my naivity was believing in the
law um when push comes to shove laws are
just pieces of paper and they can be reinterpreted for political expedience
um they are the rules made by the ruling class more
broadly uh and if those rules don't suit what it wants to do it reinterprets them or hopefully uh changes them which is clearer um in the case of the United States um we angered one of the constituent powers of the United States uh the intelligence sector the security State
the secrecy state it was powerful enough to push for a reinterpretation of the US Constitution the US con the US First Amendment seems pretty black and white to me it's very short uh it says that Congress shall make no law uh restricting speech or the
Press how however that was uh that that the US Constitution those precedents relating to it [Music] um we just uh reinterpreted away and yes perhaps ultimately if I if it got into the Supreme Court of the United States uh and I was still alive in that system um I might have won depending on what the makeup was of the US Supreme Court but in the meantime
um I had lost 14 years uh on under the house
arrest Embassy Siege and Maxim security prison so I I think this is an important lesson that when a major power faction wants to reinterpret the law it can push to have the element of the state uh in this case the US Department of Justice do that um and it doesn't care too much about what is legal um that's something for a much later day in the meantime uh the deterrent effect that it seeks the retributive actions that it seek seeks um have had their effect uh thank you uh m Mr Lee could I invite you to put a question to Mr Assange thank you obviously there's very considerable sympathy uh for your plight in this room I'd like to ask you about the position of the UK government about the allegation that you were effectively a political prisoner but presumably the
the first your your first difficulty with the European arrest warrant was not on political grounds with Sweden I'd like to ask you with your your comment on on the quality of treatment of the extradition treaties between the UK and the us and whether the UK is in fact Bound by them uh and whether we have
very little freedom of maneuver and I'd like to ask you about your treatment at bmarsh prison there's an allegation of torture which is very serious nobody denies that b Marsh is an extremely unpleasant place but I'd like to know a
bit more about the evidence for that um the US UK Expedition treaty is one-sided um nine times more people are exited to the United States from the UK than the
other way around the protections for US citizens being exed to the UK are stronger uh there is no uh need to show a primery case or Reasonable Suspicion even when the United States seeks to expedite from the UK it's a allegation Expedition system the
allegation is alleged you do not even have a chance to argue that it is not true all the arguments based simply upon is it the right person does it breach human rights that's it um that said I do not think in any way that UK judges are compelled to expedite most people and particularly journalists uh to the United States um some judges in the UK found in my favor at different stages in that process other judges did not but all judges um whether they are finding in my favor or not in the United Kingdom showed extraordinary difference to the United States um engaged in astonishing intellectual back flips uh to allow the United States to have
its way um on my extradition and in relation to
setting preceden that occurred in my case uh more broadly that's a to my mind a function of the selection of UK judges the narrow section of British Society from which they come
their deep engagement with the UK establishment and the UK establishment's deep engagement with the United States um whether that's in the intelligence
sector Bae the which is now the largest arms Manu largest manufacturer in the
United Kingdom a weapons company BP shell um and some of the major Banks the United Kingdom's establishment is made up out of people who have benefited from that system for a long period of time um and almost all judges are from it um they don't need to be told explicitly what to do U they understand what is good for that cohort and what is good for that cohort is keeping a good relationship with the United States government B Mar Pres thank you
uh Mr Lee Mr Lee as I indicated earlier one question from each member of the
committee thank you uh Mr afteron if that you you if that you ifat you I apologize I'm very glad and very happy seeing you free man Mr that was constant and um I think that's one of the major Lessons Learned from your experience and the treatment you had is that um the
misuse of a legal process the arbitrary application of a
legislation May render it uh a mean or a tool of repression or a an initation to
silence can I have uh your comments on that please
I didn't quite hear you can you please repeat the question and raise your hand I can't see
you yeah mean what uh comes out from your experience and the treatment you
received is that um the misuse the arbitrary misuse or manipulation of a
legal process can or may render the application of legislation of the legal process a a tool a mean of repression and incitation to silence instead of uniform application of of law in a rule of law Society can I have your comments on that lawfare is the use of the law to achieve
ends um that would normally be achieved in some other form of conflict um we're not talking about simply litigating to protect your rights um that rather picking laws uh to get your man or to
get the organization you want to get uh not Justice seeking its resolution in law um we've seen a lot of cases like that and obviously experienced ourselves ourselves in many different domains um I'm not sure precisely what can be
done about it there is a anti-s slap movement in Europe um which I commend uh slap is strategic lawsuits against public participation um there is good legislation in California to deal with slap suits uh and to reverse liabilities at an early stage uh and to make um abusive lawsuits more expensive to
conduct but I I think we should understand a bigger picture which is that whenever we make a law we create a
tool that self-interested bureaucrats companies and the worst elements of the security state will use and will expand the interpretation uh in order to achieve
control over others and that's why law reforms are constantly needed uh because laws are abused and expanded and so it needs a constant vigilance but also great care in making laws in the
first place because they uh will be seized upon and abused thank you uh Mr bosich could I invite you to uh address a question to
Mr Assange thank you thank you chair Mr Assange uh your appearance here is very important for the case you are symbolizing but it is also very important for the Council of Europe to
show itself as the independent institution and institution that promotes really human rights and CS you represent I wonder uh how do you assess uh support you got from the uh newspap papers journalists associations journalist associations and how does that how does that uh what's the message about the freedom of press in your case the support from um other Publications journalist unions freedom of expression um organizations uh was different at different stages the those who saw the threat to everyone
else and understood the case first um were the lawyers involved in major Publications like lawyers for the New York Times um freedom of expression NOS uh were the
next to see the threat of the larger media
organizations um un L many of [Music] them went with their political or geopolitical alignment so it was easy to gain support um from media organizations in neutral States uh and obviously States hostile to United States um allies of the United States took longer media organizations within the
United States um the journalists there not the lawyers but the journalists uh took longer still it is a concern and I I can see a
similar phenomenon happening uh with the journal has been killed in Gaza uh and Ukraine that the political and geopolitical alignment of media
organizations uh causes them to not cover those victims uh or cover only certain victims this is a breach of journalistic solidarity uh we all need to stick together uh to hold the line journalists censored anywhere
spreads censorship which can then uh affect us all similarly journalists being killed or targeted by intelligence agencies um need our firm uh commitment in writing or in broadcast um sometimes there's uh a debate about whether someone is a journalist or an activist I understand that debate um I've tried in my work uh to be rigorously accurate
I believe Accuracy is everything primary sources are everything um but there is one
area uh where I am an activist and all journalists must be an activist journalists must be activists for the truth Journal journalists must be activists for the ability to convey the truth uh and that means standing up for each other and uh making no apologies about it thank you now could I invite any other member of the Parliamentary assembly who is not a member of the committee to indicate if they wish to
ask a question and I can see two hands in the
air could I invite you first of all to give your name uh and then to ask your question of Mr Assange thank you thank you chair my name is Andy CHR I'm I'm a Romanian MP and I'm also the
general reporter for Science and Technology o of this house um I'm also
the rapporter on the so-called metaverse and Mr Assange I would like to ask you
how do you see these new technologies uh connected to what you
have presented so far thank you I'm very interested in technology um I was a computer scientist from a young age then studied mathematics and physics uh cryptography um it's with that cryptography that uh we set about our system to protect sources and protect our own organization um I am um enthused about some of the developments that are happening with cryptography some of those developments provide alternatives to what we see as huge Media power and concentration in the hands of a few billionaires they are still EMB iic other Technologies emerged out of the campaign against Mass surveillance uh through and the Big Bang was the Snowden Revelations that radicalized engineers and programmers uh in many places who saw themselves as agents of History uh in in including algorithms to protect uh people's privacy uh including the communications between journalists and their sources on the other hand as I emerge from prison I see that artificial intelligence uh is been used to create Mass assassinations where where before there
was a difference between assassination and warfare
um now the two are conjoined um when where many perhaps the
majority of targets uh in Gaza um are bombed as a result uh of artificial intelligence targeting the connection between artificial intelligence and surveillance uh is important and artificial intelligence needs information to um come up with targets or ideas or propaganda and when we're talking um about uh the use of artificial intelligence to conduct Mass assassinations um surveillance data from telephones internet uh is key to training those algorithms so there's um a lot has uh changed some things have remained the
same there's a lot of opportunity um and a lot of risk uh I'm still trying to understand where we are but hopefully we'll have
something more useful to say in due course thank you Mr Assange now there
was an indication from another member of the assembly could you please introduce yourself by name H thank you yes uh thank you Mr chair my name is s and I'm from Germany um member of the Foreign Affairs someone who knows Julian since 2012 from the Ecuadorian Embassy as the
first Member of Parliament who has visited him so Julian I'm very happy to see you as a free man now in Europe
welcome and um I uh was just going to ask you about the war crimes the US war crimes that you p uh published are still unpunished still till today the
journalists are dead and now there are presumably new war crimes in the proxy wars such as in Gaza and currently in Lebanon so my questions are how would you advise a journalist to deal with this current situation first and the
second is uh what do you think is the role of parliamentarians in this regard thank you Mr Assange
I'm sorry I'm getting a bit tired but uh Kristen perhaps you want to take
the the one about what's your journals do about the well what can be done when we have horrible stories about uh uh targeted killings where we have now have uh evidence of that in in in in in the wars it is the reality of uh reporting on Wars is more severe
than ever before and it was bad it was bad in Iraq now it is even worse it is a
horror story it is hard to give out advice for these journalists how they can deal with that situation the only thing we can call out at least is for an outcry and and condemnation that this should be going on because we need information we need this information uh there are no tools to uh to secure individuals in Gaza that are being followed by drones and uh are being targeted in Mass bombing uh there is a little defense on that but the outcry and the condemnation should be there we should not be silent when this happen happens thank you uh formally I don't want to be at all difficult and interrupt but formally uh the floor is with you Mr Assange but if you're tiring just indicate that because
I think you've answered so many questions so fully and so well uh and we
are at a point where if you wish this matter to be drawn to a close we have only a few minutes left anyway then I'm sure everyone in this room will respect [Applause] that Mr Assange would like to say uh some final words and I hope you'll bear with him thank you just a few final words um in 2010 I was living in Paris I went uh to the United Kingdom and never came
back until now um it's good to be back it's good to
be amongst people who as we say in Australia who give a
damn it's good to be amongst friends and I would just like
to thank all the people who have fought for my liberation and who have understood importantly uh that my Liberation was coupled to their own Liberation um that the basic fundamental Liberties which sustain us all um have to be fought for and that when one of us falls through the cracks soon enough those cracks will widen and take the rest of us down um so thank you for [Music] your thought your courage in this and other settings and uh keep up the fight thank you
[Applause]