Artists Tony Garnett, Davide Dormino and Costantino Ciervo demand freedom for Julian Assange

13 June 2018

Tony Garnett is a film and television producer, described by the British Film Institute as one of television’s “most influential figures,” who “produced and fostered a succession of provocative, radical and sometimes incendiary dramas.” He is identified with one of the most significant and creative periods in the history of television drama in the UK, when, in the mid-1960s through the mid-70s, he produced works such as Up the Junction, Cathy Come Home, The Lump, The Big Flame, Kes, Days of Hope and The Price of Coal. He is the author of several novels and an autobiography, The Day the Music Died.

The support for Mr Assange is just. He should be free to go about his business like any other citizen or legal visitor.

The threat of arrest for breaking his bail conditions should be withdrawn.

British Security, working with American Security, threatens to use his arrest in order to extradite him to America. They wish to make an example of him.

Therefore defending Mr Assange is part of the fight for freedom, for the rights of the individual against state oppression.

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Davide Dormino is an Italian artist who has produced Bronze statues of persecuted whistleblowers Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning.

Julian is the most courageous man I’ve ever met.

I had the opportunity to talk to him and I felt I was in the presence of a capable and generous man. His humanity is extraordinary.

My artwork, “Anything to say?” was created to celebrate the courage of Assange, Manning and Snowden and to remind us how important it is to know the truth! Stand up for Assange!

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Costantino Ciervo is an Italian artist based in Berlin, Germany. Freedom of information has been an important theme throughout his work.

In 2010/2011, I had a one-man exhibition in a gallery in Berlin dealing with counter-information (“Trans-Trend—Art and Counter Information”). I was inspired by WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

In my opinion, transparency and participation in the information process and in politics are important elements without which freedom and democracy cannot exist. Julian Assange embodies these elements. The work he has done and continues to do with WikiLeaks, his courage, his commitment to transparent information and thus to a free and participatory society are a tremendous role model for all those seeking to make this world better.

All those who have done everything in their power to defend the status quo and shut down Assange’s free, ingenious brain and great heart must hear our protest. I demand freedom for Julian Assange!

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