Freedom of the Press: 2010

Friday, December 31, 2010

New Years - Thank you Julian Assange

Happy New Years people of the internet. Thank you to Julian Assange, Bradly Manning, Glenn Greenwald, countless others within and without of WikiLeaks. Thank you for your sacrifices, thank you for your work. People of the world I thank you for your courage and strength in conviction.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Extra Credit: Julian Assange

TIME'S Julian Assange Interview: Full Transcript/Audio - link

'Blowing the Whistle' - Link

'The Secret Life of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange' - Link

'No Secrets' - Link

Information of Assange's early life pulled from 1996 court docs Link

Interview from August 2010 Swedish Newspaper -Link

Essay from NYTimes editor Bill Keller on Julian Assange - Link

The Cypherpunk Revolutionary - Link

News Bits

UN Top Anti-Torture Envoy to Check in on Bradly Manning

United Nations' is sending an anti-torture envoy to investigate claims that Bradly Manning has been mistreated in custody. The UN can ask the United States to stop any violations that it finds.

"If we are to believe the allegations, then this man acted for political reasons. He is a political prisoner in the United States. He has not gone to trial. He has been a political prisoner without trial in the United States for some six or seven months," Assange said.

"His conditions have been getting worse and worse and worse in his cell as they attempt to pressure him into testifying against me. That's a serious problem."

Link to full article

_______________

Russian Newspaper Joins Forces with WikiLeaks

According to Bloomberg a Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Known for critical reports of the Kremlin and investigative coverage of Russia has joined forces with WikiLeaks to expose corruption in Russia.

“Assange said that Russians will soon find out a lot about their country and he wasn’t bluffing,” Novaya Gazeta said. “Our collaboration will expose corruption at the top tiers of political power. No one is protected from the truth.”

Link to full article
_________________

Julian Assange accepted into the Australian Journalists' Union and the Media Entertainment for Art Alliance

"We've drawn up a new union card for him and offer him the full support of his union and professional association."

"WikiLeaks is simply performing the same function as media organisations have for centuries in facilitating the release of information in the public interest. Mr Assange's rights should be respected just the same as other journalists,"

"WikiLeaks has broken no Australian law and, as an Australian citizen, Julian Assange should be supported by the Australian government, not prematurely convicted."

Link to full article

Myth vs Fact

Myth: Bradly Manning leaked the diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.
Fact: Bradly Manning has been charged for the leaking of the footage in Collateral Murder, representing an accusation only. He has not been convicted of a crime. We are innocent until proven guilty.

Myth: Julian Assange has been charged with a crime in Sweden.
Fact: Sweden is currently trying to extradite Julian Assange for interrogation purposes only. Julian Assange has not been formally charged with any crime in Sweden.

Myth: The Swedish police want to interrogate Julian Assange for rape.
Fact: Both women in an consensual casual relationship did not get upset until they found out that they both had sex with Julian Assange.

Myth: Julian Assange is 'like a high tech terrorist.'
Fact: Reporting the truth is not a crime.

Myth: In America we have freedom of the press.
Fact: Awaiting extradition.

Glenn Greenwald's blog on the inhumane conditions Bradly Manning's detention. - Link

BradlyManning.org's formal charges Link

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

CNN News Fight

Jessica Yellin aka the holographic 'Princess Leia' of CNN gets owned by Glenn Greenwald.

Wired response to Glenn Greenwald - Link

Glenn Greenwald's blog on the interview - Link
Blog also contains a link to Jessica Yellin's response.

Updated 1/3: Glenn Greenwald's response to Wired - Link

Follow Greenwald on Twitter - Link

Monday, December 27, 2010

Juice News Media

Juice News Media exposes truths that need to be told, in rap form. The following videos deal with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Assange himself makes an appearance in Rap News 5 'News World Order'. Highly circulated Rap News 6 'WikiLeaks Cablegate: The Truth is Out There' has been tweeted by WikiLeaks and is currently posted to the video section of wikileaks.ch.

   W O R M S    A G A I N S T    N U C L E A R    K I L L E R S
 _______________________________________________________________
 \__  ____________  _____    ________    ____  ____   __  _____/
  \ \ \    /\    / /    / /\ \       | \ \  | |    | | / /    /
   \ \ \  /  \  / /    / /__\ \      | |\ \ | |    | |/ /    /
    \ \ \/ /\ \/ /    / ______ \     | | \ \| |    | |\ \   /
     \_\  /__\  /____/ /______\ \____| |__\ | |____| |_\ \_/
      \___________________________________________________/
       \                                                 /
        \    Your System Has Been Officially WANKed     /
         \_____________________________________________/
 
  You talk of times of peace for all, and then prepare for war.

Wikipedia link on the WANK worm featured in video 5.

Silvio Berlusconi's alleged affair with a teenage girl explains some of the statements made in video 6. link

Also Colonel Gadaffi's nurse in the video is based on a real nurse he keeps with him at all times because "she knows his routine."
Juice News Media's website http://thejuicemedia.com
Courage is Contagious Art site: http://courageiscontagious.net

Julian Assange named Le Monde's 'Man of the Year'

French newspaper one of the five publications working with WikiLeaks to verify information on the 250,000 diplomatic cables has named Julian Assange 'Man of the Year.' In a poll on Le Monde's website Julian Assange was voted people's choice man of the year at 56% of the votes.

Of course editor's of Time Magazine chose Mark Zuckerberg as their 2010 Person of the Year. Julian Assange was a clear winner of the Time Magazine's readers choice voting. Coming in with 382,020 votes over the Prime Minister of Turkey's 148,383. Interestingly enough Mark Zuckerberg actually came in dead last out of the 10 choices right below 'the Unemployed American.'

Search the Le Monde's Archives for French news - Link
Le Monde aritcle - Link
Time Magazine People's Choice Poll - Link

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Julian Assange Signs Book Deal

Quick update on today's news

Julian Assange autobiography book deal for around 1.5 million dollars. "I don't want to write this book, but I have to." "I have already spent 200,000 pounds for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat"

There is another book coming out in February, a tell-all from Daniel Schmitt someone who had left WikiLeaks and has started his own project OpenLeaks.

Link to article on World News Australia
Link to article on Huffington Post
Link to article on the Guardian Cables

Architecture of WikiLeaks: Take a look inside the former war bunker to see where some of the WikiLeaks servers are kept. http://www.archdaily.com/95432/architecture-of-wikileaks/

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Journalist Sentenced to Life in Prison

"He's a journalist, and wanted to give people information." NYTimes December 25th 2010

No, that is not a quote about Julian Assange. It is a quote about Memetjan Abdulla. A man who dared to translate news for a website that he manages calling for a protest after ethnic minority Uighur factory workers were beaten to death. The protest in turn sparked a riot where nearly 200 people died. Chinese officials shut down internet services in Xinjang immediately after rioting had started. Journalistic casualties of political war were not kept to Memetjan Abdulla himself, another Uighur rights website manager was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Others who maintained related websites were given jail sentences from 3-10 years in prison. Memetjan has been sentenced to life in prison in a closed hearing.

"We demand the court release the details of the trail to the public," A spokesman for the website who's call to protest had been translated stated "He was just carrying out his duty as a professional reporter. He challenged the authority's information block and tried to let the public know more." Yahoo News December 24th 2010

I don't have to tell anyone that this is wrong, yes? Especially in America where we are not China, where we are suppose to have rights. Where we are suppose to have freedoms. Freedoms granted to us because it is recognized by our nations forefathers as simply the right way to treat one another.

I know we are not China, and I hope we never become China. I am ethnically Chinese on my mothers side, but I don't have to tell you just how people are stripped of liberties and persecuted in China. Who controls the governments makes the laws, whoever makes the laws determines who's right, right? Of course not we all know that its wrong to jail a journalist over journalism information, don't we? What gets me about the Julian Assange situation is the fact that we are suppose to be a land of freedom of the press, the journalistic handling of information should not be a crime.

Radio Free Asia, an excellent source of Asian news: http://www.rfa.org/
All quotations from Uyghur Congress spokesperson Mr. Raxit
Article written by AuroraDizon@gmail.com.

Corporations That Have Not Cut Off Support to WikiLeaks

Facebook: "The Wikileaks Facebook Page does not violate our content standards nor have we encountered any material posted on the page that violates our policies." [link]

Twitter: Twitter took steps to unseal an order that allowed users targeted in the information inquiry to be notified. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo quote 'In general, he hates government mandates to keep things quiet. And he hates that a woman in China was punished for retweeting something. He reiterates Twitter’s desire to connect people with useful information. “We’re going to lash out at things that prevent us from doing that, as aggressively as we can.” The proof is that we’re banned in China. “We’re not going to sacrifice what we’re trying to do to." [link]

MSNBC: One of the only national media outlets to not consistently attack WikieLeaks. (Speculative based on amount of news from MSNBC.)

Corporations That Cut Off Support to WikiLeaks

Amazon:

Apple: Apple claims that Wikileaks application breaks tos "We removed WikiLeaks because it violated developer guidelines. An app must comply with all local laws. It may not put an individual or target group in harms way."
December 21th 2010 [link]
Authors Note: To be fair Apple frequently bans apps from their store.

Bank of America:

EveryDNS:

Mastercard:

Moneybookers: Moneybookers, a British-registered internet payment company that collects WikiLeaks donations, emailed the organisation to say it had closed down its account because it had been put on an official US watchlist and on an Australian government blacklist. [link] Moneybookers moved against WikiLeaks on 13 August, according to the correspondence, less than a week after the Pentagon made public threats of reprisals against the organisation.

PayPal: Statement “We have an acceptable use policy and their job is make sure that our customers are protected, making sure that we comply with regulations around the world and making sure that we protect our brand.” [link]

Postfinance:

Tableau Software:

Visa:

Vodafone: Cutting off networking services in Egypt

Note: Page not yet completed with quotes and dates.

Julian Assange on TED

Julian Assange on TED: http://www.ted.com/speakers/julian_assange.html

Friday, December 24, 2010

Julian Assange on the Colbert Report 4/12/2010

Originating Link: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/270712/april-12-2010/julian-assange

Thursday, December 23, 2010

BBC Interview with Julian Assange

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9309000/9309320.stm

Julian Assange stated that he was fed up with the press and described the BBC interview listed above as an example of the aggressive interviewers.

Link contains a transcript from an interview with Julian Assange from December 21st 2010 along with the interview which is a 25:20 minuet audio.

Originating link for that statement - Link

How To Follow RSS Feeds on iGoogle

Here's how to use a custom home page in order to follow breaking news from different sites. Most news sites have RSS feeds in which you can customize for specific topics or general feeds.

To the left is what the top of my general news page looks like.

To create an igoogle page go to www.google.com/ig there are also other home page sites to consider such as Pageflakes, and MyYahoo.

iGoogle has a number of gadgets that are news oriented already. I like to customize what feeds I get, in what order. You can also edit your settings on each gadget you create to show as many or as little headlines as you would like. You can also add RSS feeds from blogs, and various websites.

To add a customized RSS feed to an iGoogle page click 'Add Stuff>>' in the upper right hand corner of your screen.

You will see the page in the image to the left. Highlighted is the link to 'add feed or gadget. Then simply add in the RSS feed link. Usually indicated by the orange feed icon, copy and paste that url. RSS feeds usually look something like this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/julian-assange/feed/ pages full of html text. Thats it have fun guys.

Article written by AuroraDizon@gmail.com.