Re: Puff piece about Nick Davies by Nick Davies Archived Message
Posted by margo on August 23, 2019, 3:45 pm, in reply to "Puff piece about Nick Davies by Nick Davies"
Thanks for response, Mary. As you say: "The damage to him has been done and continues to be done" This damage explains how one of this century's most important advocates of democratic free speech can be held in isolation in the heart of London over a 'bail' issue, denied a pair of spectacles, with 99.9% of passersby giving a collective shrug. As journo Stephania Maurizi says, what's been happening amounts to "a scandal". She reckons Sweden's highly unusual foot-dragging - and their kow-towing to emails from London telling them not to drop the case - is at the heart of the scandal. At her Bergen talk last night (live-streamed by Courage Foundation on FB), Maurizi - who's worked with Assange in the embassy - pointed out that the great significance of the character assassination and trial-by-media is that this demonisation denied him public support. The loaded 'rape' allegation (no charges ever laid, case twice dropped) worked to deny him progressive female support, as well as the male support that feared being smeared as 'misogynist'. Maurizi reckons the US is dead keen to make an example of Assange before the 4-million+ people in the US who hold security clearance. With such huge security personnel, the US security state fears "100 Mannings and 100 Snowdens" coming forth. A manacled Assange being led into a closed Virginia courtroom serves as a perfect warning to US potential whistle-blowers. Maurizi: The US wants Assange for their own domestic purposes ... and the UK state is currently catering to that demand. .....------ Re: your remarks on South Africa. Many South Africans - who remember journalists smeared and detained between 1970-1992 - are healthily sceptical and see what's going on here, as overheard on a phone-in radio show on Assange/WL, the other day. SA has its problems but it still has a robust judiciary and media. We've had highly inconvenient leaks and whistle-blowers, journalists and publishers loudly 'speaking truth to power' for years, investigating state capture of one president and corporate capture of the current incumbent. No publisher or journalist is currently jailed or in lengthy legal process. Can it be that an African country has wider bandwidth and healthier media environment, than the US and UK? Is it that South Africans experienced what it was like to have someone isolated and demonised for decades (Mandela) - and as a result refuse to keep quiet? They seem to appreciate the joy of speaking out and setting records straight. The more voices that ring out, the safer everyone feels here. It's when people are isolated and views are silenced or met with silence, that people start getting fearful: all signs of an abusive relationship - whether between individuals or between state and citizen.
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Message Thread:
- Guardian trying to make up for lost time, now they realise their complicity in hounding Assange? - margo August 23, 2019, 9:26 am
- Joint statement from Australian Mark Davis and Guardian's Nick Davies - margo August 23, 2019, 9:57 am
- Re: Guardian trying to make up for lost time, now they realise their complicity in hounding Assange? - margo August 23, 2019, 10:34 am
- The great human rights lawyer Gareth Pierce on Democracy Now - margo August 23, 2019, 11:08 am
- Stephania Maurizi speaks (video) - margo August 23, 2019, 4:43 pm
- Re: Guardian trying to make up for lost time, now they realise their complicity in hounding Assange? - margo August 23, 2019, 6:09 pm
- Eye-witness testimony from within court the day Assange was sentenced to a year in Belmarsh (video) - margo August 23, 2019, 6:51 pm
- Re: Guardian trying to make up for lost time, now they realise their complicity in hounding Assange? - Shyaku August 25, 2019, 12:22 am
- Good on you, Shyaku. nm - brooks August 25, 2019, 1:10 am
- Heartening, thanks! Raising awareness is a one-directional trajectory: once people 'see' ... - margo August 25, 2019, 8:22 am
- Good....nm - Keith-264 August 25, 2019, 7:14 pm
- I was amazed that people who are probably so burdened with basic survival ... - Shyaku August 26, 2019, 1:26 am
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