The Evolution of Understanding Julian Assange
While speaking on behalf of Amnesty International at a rally in Martin Place, in support of dropping the charges on Julian Assange and halting his extradition, I was privy to a unique process.
It started years ago, from having a superficial understanding of Assange’s extradition in my early 20’s, to delving deep into the rabbit hole of information with a great friend, where most of the facts seem to lie in the online age.
I had bought into the stigmas, the one-liners and the complexity of his case, as justification for not pursuing the facts further. In discussing Assange’s case with many people, I noticed that facts were not the priority, if it resulted in a long drawn out debate. In fact, the easier the rebuttal was not to show support, the easier the conversation ended and for all of us to move on.
But it’s always bugged me, that with so many news sources around, not only do we have to dig into Page 3 or 4 of Google to find some facts from impartial sources, but how many people are happy taking strong stances on issues, based on one-liners spoon-fed from the media as their source, instead of going through this process.
I’ve since watched my conversations on Assange evolve, from seeing a glimmer of intent to understand the case deeper, knowing there was more behind it, to then an irrelevant ‘but isn’t he a ratbag?’ to shut down the discussion. Until now, after many years of researching, learning and understanding the situation he finds himself in for publishing, mirroring conduct that investigative journalists undertake regularly in their professional capacity.
While it was a small contingent campaigning for his release a year ago, the audience that showed support at the rally last week, was diverse, having come on this journey of digging themselves. More people are now understanding the deeper implications of his case and mistreatment, with Amnesty’s petition hitting 40,000 signatures of support in a week.
I’ve also realised that it’s human nature not to challenge or focus your energy onto more than a handful of controversial or indigestible issues, as it momentarily causes more harm than good to your own psyche. People pick and choose their battles: climate change, rights for various organisations, sports, politics or business to name a handful. All have their complexities and grey areas, but it’s far easier to place some topics in a box, to save your energy for other issues that your prefer to tackle.
The crux of this experience is while Julian Assange has doggedly been presented as a troublemaker and controversial figure, this approach has no bearing on the impact his potential extradition and mistreatment will have on publishing, journalism or the freedom of the press, however you choose to call it. But more so, on the freedoms we will forgo.
Place any other persona in this situation and the threat to uncovering truth remains. The threat to a future of facts remains. When whistle blowing is clamped down upon, it leads to less transparency, more control over the flow of information and in turn, an ill-informed voter. The messengers of this information, namely journalists and publishers, are the ones being used as fodder.
More than ever, now is the time to throw your support behind the halting of these charges as Australians, concerned about the future of freedom of speech in our country and around the world. Let alone, the treatment of a citizen, who has from numerous accounts been psychologically tortured and subject to an unfair trial. Add to this, revelations of spying on his legal team being revealed only a couple of weeks ago.
The nugget from this journey is to chase the hard to find facts before you comment or share in heated public discourse. Conversations based off click bait or unverified sources, exponentially grows into misinformation, then public opinion, which leads to rights being eroded while we fight over the wrong things. I implore everyone, to dig deep when looking for information, not only on Page 1 of Google where companies pay for their positioning, or the trending link on your social media.
Instead, critically analyse the sources, the agency & the writer of the piece. If you’re confident in your opinion, make sure you’ve looked up a variety of stats first.
So we have to agree, with a father, brother, son and Australian citizens life at stake for this inherent freedom, Julian Assange can’t be extradited to the US to face potentially 175 years in prison. Extradited by a country of which he is not a citizen. Because how much digging will we have to do then?
@chamiragamage on Twitter
