Thursday, 14 November 2019

08:30-11:00 | Room ASP 1G2, European Parliament, Brussels

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The Assange case raises profound and urgent concerns over the freedoms of the press and of expression

Since April this year the Australian publisher of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has been in Belmarsh high security prison in London. He has been charged by US prosecutors with 17 counts under the US Espionage Act of 1917. The charges relate solely to the 2010 publication of US government documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and from the US Department of State.

The publication was undertaken by WikiLeaks along with some of the world’s most prestigious newspapers and was widely recognised as a watershed moment in investigative journalism, exposing information of high public interest including possible war crimes, government collusion with the private sector and diplomatic interference in other countries’ internal affairs.

It is purely for these journalistic publications that Assange is now fighting extradition to the United States, where he will face up to 175 years in prison.

Parliamentarians from across the political groups have a keen interest in coming together to examine the case and its implications for civil society and the exercise of democratic freedoms in Europe.

Programme

08:00 – 08:45. Entrance and Security

09:00 – 09:15 Introduction by Clare Daly

09:15 – 09:20 Presentation of David Green by Pernando Barrena

09:20 – 09:35 David Greene, Civil Liberties Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation

09:35 – 09:40 Introduction of Nils Melzer by Luke Ming Flanagan

09:40 – 09:55 Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture

09:55 – 10:00 Introduction of Bob Carr by Mick Wallace

10:00 – 10:15 Bob Carr, Former Foreign Minister of Australia (via video link)

10:15 – 10:35 Q&A

10:35 – 10:40 Closing by Clare Daly