Tag Archives: freedom of press

Brian Eno Starts A Campaign For Julian Assange And Releases A New Protest Song (videos)

Legendary producer and musician Brian eno is no stranger to activism. Some of his extra curricular activities include being an elected member of the Coordinating Collective along with Noam Chomsky and 10 others, president of the Stop the War Coalition and now he has started his own campaign fighting for the freedom of political prisoner and journalist Julian Assange.

“Journalism survives in an atmosphere of freedom and we’re gradually closing that down now. On December 19th, which is the day of his hearing, we want to swamp the Home Office with emails to protest his innocence. This is important not just for Assange but for the future of journalism, and the future of holding governments to account for what they do.”

For more information about the campaign that was co-founded by Ann Wright (retired United States Army colonel and retired U.S. State Department official, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War) and Medea Benjamin (an American political activist, best known for co-founding Code Pink) click the image below.

See also: ‘Behind These Prison Walls’: David Rovics Records New Music Video Outside The Prison Where Assange Is Being Kept

In addition to fighting for the freedom of the press, on Monday the 9th of December, few days before Thursday elections in the UK, Eno released a jolly song that sarcastically criticizes the UK government and tells of the hardship poor, homeless and working people have to endure in the country.

All proceeds from the song go to the homeless.

‘Behind These Prison Walls’: David Rovics Records New Music Video Outside The Prison Where Assange Is Being Kept

Julian Assange founded Wikileaks in 2006 as an highly innovative journalism project that stays truer than most to the un-biased, watchdog rules of journalism ethics – no matter how much so many poser journalists disagree.

In 2010 Wikileaks published several leaks revealing the war crimes and horrible international offenses made by the United States army and government starting with the Collateral Murder video.

After these revelations the hard oppression began against Assange and Wikileaks and from 2012 and for roughly seven years Assange remained in political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Today Julian Assange is being kept in the HM Prison Belmarsh in London. The United States government is fiercely trying to extradite him to the U.S. where he would most likely be imprisoned for the rest of his life. For his journalist work.

Veteran protest music singer David Rovics tried to visit Assange on while on tour in England recently but as he told me the Belmarsh makes that harder than other prisons in the country: “You need a visitor order to visit prisoners at Belmarsh, unlike other prisons in England, where you just need to show up during visiting hours.”

When I asked David what message he has for the UK and US governments he said: “I’m not sure what message I have for these governments, because they are not interested in anything people like me have to say.

They know what they’re doing. They’re trying to hide the truth, that these governments are run by war criminals, imperialists, bankers stealing our collective wealth and leaving most of us in poverty. It’s completely intentional.

My message is for those who might actually be listening, among the populations of the US, the UK, and elsewhere. It is up to us, the task of changing our corrupt systems. And we do have the power, if we organize collectively on a massive scale and exercise it. If we don’t, no one else will.”

For six consecutive years Wikileaks has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and won a great deal of awards for its journalist work.

It is the responsibility of the journalist to let citizens know if the people in power are misusing their powers. No one can argue against that. That, and only that, is what Julian Assange and Wikileaks have consistently done.

If Assange gets extradited to and imprisoned in the U.S. precedent will have been set and every single honest journalist on this planet will be in danger.