Julian Assange. I won’t say that I don’t think the work he did with WikiLeaks was totally awesome and incredibly important, yet as I’ve argued before, I have many reservations towards Assange the person – or rather the persona he projects to the world.
Possibly this is because I was slightly underwhelmed when I saw him speak at a curious debate on whistle blowers organized by the New Statesman in Kensington Town Hall back in April 2011.
Respect’s leader, Salma Yaqoob has made the following statement on her own website:
A heated controversy around Julian Assange … is conflating issues around freedom of speech with debates about what constitutes violence against women. Let me be clear, as a politician and as a woman. Rape occurs when a woman has not consented to sex. George Galloway’s comments on what constitutes rape are deeply disappointing and wrong. Continue reading
Julian Assange’s lawyer Mark Stephens is interviewed by Sir David Frost on Al Jazeera.
A number of feminist and left bloggers have urged caution about the charges of sexual assault — the description is itself contentious — against Julian Assange, arguing rightly that, though he may be a hero for what he has done as founder of Wikileaks, there may be other actions and other aspects of his character for which he should be held to account. He will now have to answer the serious accusations that have been made by two Swedish women, AA and SW (whose names are widely used on the internet). In this matter he should be treated as innocent until proven guilty, and even if it turns out that he is guilty, Wikileaks is not. In the meantime, he deserves our support. Continue reading
