Is Julian Assange beyond all criticism?

July 12, 2024

Mr Barns wrote recently in P&I; “I have spoken with (Peter) Greste and met with him, along with my Australian Campaign colleagues. He is not, these days, fixated on whether Assange is a journalist or publisher and told us as much in an online meeting held on 6 February 2023”.

In an interview on the ABC on 26 June 2024, Greste said he was not convinced that what Wikileaks did was journalism, that it met the professional and ethical standards that go with someone being designated a journalist, as Greste sees it. Further, Greste wrote in The Conversation on 25 June 2024; “…Journalism comes with the responsibility to process and present information in line with a set of ethical and professional standards. I don’t believe WikiLeaks met that standard; in releasing raw, unredacted and unprocessed information online, it posed enormous risks for people in the field, including sources.” “This is not to diminish the importance or value of what WikiLeaks exposed.”

He agrees the outcome is “one of the darkest periods in the history of media freedom”. “…We should all celebrate the release of a man who has suffered enormously for exposing the truth of abuses of power.”

I agree!