We have seen Assange’s plight in a UK prison, but extraditing him this week would be a disaster for us all

The Guardian

It is vital not to forget about the man – and the repercussions for press freedom if the high court says he can be sent to the US. (...)

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Julian Assange greets supporters outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London on 19 May 2017. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP.

RSF defends Assange because of his contributions to journalism: WikiLeaks’ publication of more than 250,000 leaked classified US military and diplomatic documents in 2010 informed extensive public interest reporting around the world. These stories revealed war crimes and human rights violations that have never been prosecuted; only the publisher has been pursued in the US, on 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, in connection with the publication of the leaked documents.

If extradited to the US, Assange faces a staggering possible prison sentence of 175 years. He would be the first publisher prosecuted under the Espionage Act, which lacks a public interest defence and is in dire need of reform. This would set a dangerous precedent for journalists and media organisations that publish stories based on leaked information, and have a chilling effect on public interest reporting. (...)

Of course, Assange should not be in prison anywhere – not in the UK, nor the US, nor Australia, as was suggested to the UK court by the US authorities. No one, anywhere, should be targeted for publishing information in the public interest. Assange should be immediately released – perhaps through a political solution if not the courts, given the political nature of the case against him. (...)

It remains to be seen whether the British judiciary will deliver some form of justice at this late stage by preventing extradition, or whether the UK will become the country that enables a historically damning blow to press freedom, and the right of all of us to know.

Complete article

> See also: Don’t Extradite Assange

Tags: #assange #julian_assange #press #media #news #journalism #press_freedom #freedom_of_the_press #extradition #wiki_leaks #war_crimes #human_rights #FreeAssange #JournalistsSpeakUpForAssange

‘The kids had all been tortured’: Indonesian military accused of targeting children in West Papua

The Guardian

Australia is seeking to strengthen ties with Indonesia, despite new reports of brutality by the military — including the torture and murder of civilians — in West Papua. (...)

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Transported by helicopter to the regional military headquarters 100km away, the group were beaten and burnt so badly by their captors that they no longer looked human.

Kogeya says Wity died a painful death in custody. The other five were only released after human rights advocates tipped off the local media.

“The kids had all been tortured and they’d been tied up and then burned,” says Kogeya, who saw the surviving boys’ injuries first-hand on the day of their release.

“[The military] had heated up machetes and knives and pressed it against their skin … They didn’t even look like humans. They were burnt from head to toe. They were in a really bad way.” (...)

Last year UN human rights experts called for urgent and unrestricted humanitarian access to the region over serious concerns about “shocking abuses against Indigenous Papuans, including child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people.” (...)

The day before the boys’ detention, in the same region of Nduga, soldiers opened fire on a group of women and children returning with string bags filled with food from shopping in a neighbouring village, locals say. (...)

“The military could tell that [the group of women and children] were not combatants,” Kogoya says. “And they still shot them.”

“They know we’re carrying vegetables not guns – so why are they shooting at us and why are they arresting us?” (...)

The former Dutch colony is just 250km from mainland Australia. It’s a short boat ride from the northern islands of the Torres Strait. But most Australians know little about the war that is raging there.

The lack of knowledge is partly by design: very little about West Papua reaches the outside world because Indonesia tightly controls access for foreign journalists and human rights monitors. (...)

When the Netherlands began preparing for withdrawal in the 1950s, West Papuans pushed strongly for independence. As Melanesians, they see themselves as part of the Pacific, not south-east Asia. But their powerful neighbour had other ideas. (...)

A ceasefire was brokered by the United Nations, and a UN-backed ballot was held in 1969, ostensibly to allow West Papuans to have their say on integration with Indonesia.

But advocates say the “Act of Free Choice” was rigged from the start. Just 1,022 West Papuan leaders were handpicked by Indonesian officials to represent the entire population, and they were coerced and threatened at gunpoint to reject independence.

In this environment, support for integration was unanimous. The result was rubber-stamped by the UN.

Indigenous West Papuans continue to demand a real vote on self-determination, mostly through acts of civil disobedience such as raising the banned ‘Morning Star’ flag. They pay a heavy price in police and military brutality, as well as long jail sentences, for their activism. (...)

“We can’t do anything here,” says Nopinanus Kogoya. “People are even dying of hunger in the street because they can’t farm, they can’t go anywhere. We’re just completely, completely under the control of this fierce military occupation.” (...)

Locals say the brutality escalated in February this year, when Phillip Mehrtens, a New Zealand pilot working for Indonesian airline Susi Air, was taken hostage and his plane burned by the rebel army at Nduga airport. (...)

Now, Australia is seeking to forge closer military ties in negotiations on a “defence cooperation agreement” – a “treaty-level instrument” that will be legally enforceable before an international court, says Rothwell. (...)

Australia also provides weapons and other tools of war to Indonesia, including a recent shipment of 15 Bushmaster armoured vehicles, intended for use by Indonesian special forces during peacekeeping missions. (...)

Complete article

Tags: #new_guinea #dutch_new_guinea #papua #west_papua #papua_merdeka #independence #act_of_free_choice #referendum #human_rights #racism #discrimination #indonesia #media #censorship #censor #news #freedom_of_the_press #press_freedom #nederlands_nieuw-guinea #human_rights_abuse

A Papuan Human Rights Hero Has Died

Filep Karma Called for Papua Independence from Indonesia; Spent 11 Years in Prison

Human Rights Watch

Filep Karma, a prominent Papuan activist and former political prisoner, was found dead Monday on a beach in the Papuan city of Jayapura. He had been on a diving trip with his brother-in-law and nephew, and apparently went diving alone after his relatives left the trip early. Karma, a master diver with three decades’ experience, was found wearing his scuba diving suit. (...)

In 2010, Human Rights Watch published a report on political prisoners in Papua and the Moluccas Islands, launching a global campaign to release the prisoners. In 2011, Karma’s mother, Eklefina Noriwari, petitioned the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for Karma’s release. The working group determined Karma’s detention had violated international law, and called on the Indonesian government release him. The authorities only released Karma in 2015.

After his release, Karma embraced a wider agenda of political activism. He spoke about human rights and environmental protection. He campaigned for the rights of minorities. He organized help for political prisoners’ families. (...)

Complete article

Filep Karma outside the Abepura prison in Jayapura, Indonesia, December 2014. © 2014 Andreas Harsono.

Tags: #new_guinea #dutch_new_guinea #papua #west_papua #papua_merdeka #independence #act_of_free_choice #referendum #human_rights #racism #discrimination #indonesia #media #censorship #censor #news #freedom_of_the_press #press_freedom #nederlands_nieuw-guinea #human_rights_abuse

‘Killed like animals’: documents reveal how Australia turned a blind eye to a West Papuan massacre

The Guardian

Dozens of West Papuans were tortured and thrown into the sea 23 years ago. Days later, Australia knew details of the attack, yet remained silent. (...)

Women and children were cut down before his eyes. Some were singing hymns as the troops opened fire.

Bullets tore through the neck and stomach of two of his friends.

“They were killing like they killed animals,” he says. “They don’t think these are human beings, they are thinking these are animals.”

Korwa’s skull was cracked from the butt of an Indonesian soldier’s rifle and his stomach was bleeding heavily from a machete wound. (...)

In the 23 years since, not one person has been charged with the killings. The massacre is not recognised officially and no government or international inquiry has reported on it.

The Indonesian government has either denied or downplayed the deaths. (...)

Australia has only ever offered a muted response, expressing concern to the Indonesian government but not condemning the massacre.

The true extent of the Howard government’s knowledge of the massacre has, until now, largely remained unknown.

But a newly released, unredacted intelligence report handed to Guardian Australia reveals an Australian intelligence officer provided the government with compelling evidence just 11 days after the killings that Indonesia “almost certainly used excessive force against pro-independence demonstrators”.

The same officer was also handed photographic evidence by West Papuans on Biak, at great risk to their safety. The photos were distributed to his superiors within defence, but never saw the light of day.

New evidence suggests they have since been destroyed by the defence department, despite consistent calls for a proper investigation into the atrocity. (...)

Full article

> More on West Papua (formerly Netherlands New Guinea)

Yudha Korwa fled West Papua and came to Australia in 2006 after a massacre by the Indonesian military. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian.

Tags: #new_guinea #dutch_new_guinea #papua #west_papua #papua_merdeka #independence #act_of_free_choice #referendum #human_rights #racism #discrimination #indonesia #media #censorship #censor #news #freedom_of_the_press #press_freedom #nederlands_nieuw-guinea #human_rights_abuse

A Remarkable Silence: Media Blackout After Key Witness Against Assange Admits Lying

Media Lens

As we have pointed out since Media Lens began in 2001, a fundamental feature of corporate media is propaganda by omission. Over the past week, a stunning example has highlighted this core property once again.

A major witness in the US case against Julian Assange has just admitted fabricat­ing key accusati­ons in the indictment against the Wikileaks founder. These dramatic revelations emerged in an extensive article published on 26 June in Stundin, an Icelandic newspaper. The paper interviewed the witness, Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, a former WikiLeaks volunteer, who admitted that he had made false allegations against Assange after being recruited by US authorities. (...)

Under President Obama, the US Department of Justice had decided against indicting Assange, despite devoting huge resources to building a case against him. The stumbling block was ‘The New York Times Problem’: the difficulty in distinguishing between WikiLeaks publications and NYT publications of the same material. In other words, prosecuting WikiLeaks would pose grave First Amendment risks for even ‘respectable’ media such as the NYT. (...)

Even before the Stundin article was published five days ago, Thordarson’s testimony should have already been recognised as suspect, to say the least. (...)

But all of this is seemingly of no interest to the ‘mainstream’ media. We have not found a single report by any ‘serious’ UK broadcaster or newspaper. (...)

[I]n a sane world, Stundin’s revelations about a key Assange witness – that Thordarson lied in exchange for immunity from prosecution – would have been headline news everywhere, with extensive media coverage on BBC News at Six and Ten, ITV News, Channel 4 News, front-page stories in the Times, Telegraph, the Guardian and more. The silence is quite extraordinary; and disturbing. Caitlin Johnstone described it as a ‘weird, creepy media blackout’. (...)

As we have often observed, the establishment media relentlessly warn of the insidious nature of ‘fake news’: a claim that does have a seed of validity. But it is the state-corporate media themselves who are the primary purveyors of fake news. (...)

In fact, the most dangerous component of ‘MSM’ fake news is arguably propaganda by omission. In ostensible ‘democracies’, the public cannot make informed decisions, and take appropriate action, when the crimes of ruling elites are kept hidden by a complicit media.

Full article

Tags: #media #newspaper #journalism #journalist #editor #news #the_guardian #bbc #assange #julian_assange #wikileaks #propaganda #msm #mainstream_media #fake_news #corporate_media #government_propaganda #press_freedom #freedom_of_the_press