Hundreds flock to Wikileaks Sydney rally

By Ry Crozier, Nate Cochrane on Dec 10, 2010 3:35 PM
Filed under Security

Julian Assange, Australian of the Year?


See all pictures here »

The Australian Government's silence in the face of prominent Americans' death threats against Julian Assange made it complicit in undermining the safety of Australians overseas and posed a threat to freedom of speech at home, a Sydney rally to support Wikileaks heard today.

Speaking before hundreds of protesters who also heard calls for Assange to be nominated Australian of the Year, NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said the Australian Government was wrong to draw a line between the "online community and the real-world community". (Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday said Assange should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.)

It was one of a dozen rallies to be held across Australia in coming days and came a few hours after the first rally in Brisbane.

"A core right is right to open information, the right to know what's going on," Shoebridge said.

"Why is it that our Government, they can pick on Julian Assange and Wikileaks? And not the media? Because they think there's a distinction between the online community and the real-world community.

"Increasingly the conversations we're having at home, across the dinner table, in the pub and the street is coming from information we find through open sources on the internet."

The Australian publisher of the Wikileaks whistleblowers' site was taken into custody on Wednesday for alleged sex misdemeanours in Sweden but supporters believed it was a trap to squirrel him off to the US where he may already face a secret Grand Jury, supporters said today.

Even if Assange returned home, Shoebridge said there was a possibility that Australian laws would be changed to retrospectively make illegal Wikileaks work of leaking embarrassing documents to the internet.

"What an outrage that would be," Shoebridge said.

"The online community and real-world community are one and the same - we have the power to organise online and speak as one through the information we get through a free internet and if the Government of Australia think they can step on Julian Assange just because he's an online organiser then they have another thing coming."

Asher Wolf, the Melbourne-based editor of WLCentral.org, a website geared to covering the events surrounding Wikileaks that attracted about 1.9 million hits a day, said she was fearful that as an "associate" of Wikileaks that she would be hunted down and assassinated following such calls from US commentators.

"Wikileaks is an important public institution. Without transparency there can be no accountability and without accountability there can be no democracy," Wolf said.

To a loud round of boos, Green Left Weekly co-editor Simon Butler said he wanted to "send a message to the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard and Paypal ", several of whom had DDoS attacks levelled at their websites.

"I want to say to you: bet you didn't see that coming," Butler said.

"For any corporation or government that wants to silence Wikileaks our messsage is that you're not going to win. There are thousands of people around the world hosting websites - even the Government of Bolivia has joined us."

He said a "fiercely independent" Wikileaks posed a threat to the established political order and journalists and said a "fitting award" for its style of journalism was to give Assange Australian of the Year.

And he ridiculed the Australian Government response to US conservative and failed vide-presidential hopeful's Sarah Palin's calls for Assange's killing: "How is it that a prominent person in the US can call for the assassination of an Australian and the Australian Government not say back off - worse, they join in?"

A man who identified himself as US IT worker Keith Dodd said Assange may face a secret trial if arrested.

A speaker who said he was Keith Dodd, an American IT worker for a US technology company, asked if the world was "looking at the death of the free internet"?

He said the "Internet Kill Switch" proposal before the US Congress would threaten free speech.

"Many of us in the technology world were excited about and drawn to and embraced the net because of its profound revolutionary potential," Dodd said.

"Anyone could be a publisher or editor or as a student create a company like YouTube or Google.

Are we looking at the death of that when the US Government leans on companies and they ingloriously rolled over without asking for legal paper," he said in reference to Amazon, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and others denying service to Wikileaks this week.

"In all the furore let us not ignore that the content of that is driving the American security apparatus crazy because it's exposing crimes going back generations and where the US Government tears up the First Amendment every day."

Photos by Ry Crozier

Do you think Julian Assange should be nominated for Australian of the Year? Tell us what you think of Wikileaks investigative journalism below.

21 comments in this discussion

"All governments are accountable to its people. Transparency ensures this is so. I think Ms PM is too concerned with making the 'right' choice, instead of leading with 'her' choice that she caved ..."

By panto

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Comments: 21

nasz Dec 10, 2010 3:48 PM	Another nail in the coffin of freedom of speech. Funny enough America would not be concerned if the information was about a different country!
cobrasixtysix Dec 10, 2010 3:53 PM	Julian Assange and Wikileaks are finally starting to cut through the smoke and expose the dark underbelly of world governments, but in particular, the US government. This has been a very long time comming, but ultimately its the reset switch the world needs to get back on track. Should Julian Assange be nominated for Australian of the Year? Absolutely he should!!!
cobrasixtysix Dec 10, 2010 4:03 PM	If wikileaks were publishing documents about the Chinese killing the Tibetians, the US Government would hale wikileaks as humanitarian hero's and celebrated for their relentless courage in exposing the evil communist regime. Just goes to show the US Government can give it, but they just can't take it, like the Bullies they really are!!
ITnovice Dec 10, 2010 4:42 PM	This whole fiasco is bringing to light the true colours of key world leaders and individuals in a way not seen before. It seems to be raising more questions than answers on issues of rights, democracy, and freedom of speech. It disturbs me how quickly the Australian Government will abandon all support of one of its own citizens when all they have done is release documents handed to them containing un-diplomatic statements about Aussie politicians and a few key sites of interest. It's absolutely disgraceful! What is Australian citizenship worth if the government will not help you when you need it most and even wants a piece of the action with revenge!
raisethedust Dec 10, 2010 5:41 PM	I think of the millions of Australians who have gone before us in history working and dying so that we could be a free country. And we have these so-called Australian Government leaders selling our country down the drain at the whim of a foreign country. This has not been the first time that they have done this and we have to make sure that this will be the last.
pameacs Dec 10, 2010 5:57 PM	This whole affair is raising a lot of questions, why is it that people are being arrested for denial of service against corporate America, but when corporate America did it against a torrent site that was ok (No RIAA execs arrested as yet). I do think this government has made some political blunders in the handling and the last one did as well when it came to handling Australians in trouble with the US. What I see at the moment is the last gasps of a dying empire. The US Economic power is fading and with that its political power. They have much less military power as their ability to use what they have is diminished with out the economy. Julian Assange appears to have done no wrong in regards to the leaks, the US has not as yet been able to deliver a case to have him arrested. I am sure that one will be forthcoming even if they have to make a legal change retrospective. At the end of the day, I think the damage has been done already in many ways that a lot of people have had their eyes opened. Old world media must be wondering how it all went so wrong for them as well, they missed out on some juicy material.
Daveh Dec 10, 2010 6:24 PM	All i can think of is the sad tale of David Hicks. At-least our government bought him home.
KB Dec 10, 2010 8:23 PM	Now, the Australian government, has shown that even as an Australian, you are not safe FROM the Australian government. This is the last bastion of a free and democratic Australia. There will be more rules and regulation forced upon a "free" society than ever before under this Labor government, to stifle free speech, to ban you from drinking alcohol, to ban you from smoking and many other things that experts seem to think are unsafe. This Labor government are still collecting taxes from Alcopops and cigarettes that have not been passed as a bill. They introduce legislation to prevent us from dieing young, but make you work longer before you can get a pension. The pension that you pay taxes for. They should no longer be calling each individual state the "nanny state" we have become, the "nanny country". Labor - what a pack of F.Wits. No one in this once great country are safe anymore. Maybe the Labor government can say "sorry" to all the Diggers that fought for this once great country.
Mordd Dec 10, 2010 8:48 PM	@ Daveh - difference being David Hicks admitted to terrorist activities and training i jihadist camps, Julian Assange has never come close to such a thing, all Julian is guilty of is wanting to tell the truth and show the world what goes on behind "diplomatic doors". There is a fairly big difference between Hicks and Assange, to start off with Assange hasn't actually broken any Australian or International laws, a fairly big point of difference i would say, wouldn't you?
gerson Dec 10, 2010 8:52 PM	Ok we should deal with these issues emotionally, subjectively, opportunistically, irrationally, incompetently, illegally and dishonestly....SHOOT THE MESSENGER for piXXing me OFF!!
Oldsniper Dec 10, 2010 11:11 PM	Only hundreds hell even the RENT a CROWD could pull more of a mob then that, and they didnt even care. All Assange is doing is trying to be famous, so I guess something is better then nothing, even if that something was illegally obtained via the criminal actions of another person.
Ace Dec 11, 2010 12:40 AM	Just as an aside, what major 'thing' has been leaked so far? In Australia at least, Rudd being a control freak is not known so much as a 'leak' as 'common knowledge'. Whistleblowers are generally thought of as people (insiders) how report some significant wrong - often causing death. So far, it seems to be a case of slightly embarrassing leaks. And as typical of the media, that take the opinion of one ambassador as being 'the position of the US government'. Are people over-reacting a little? Is this really IT news?
rycrozier Dec 11, 2010 7:44 AM	Insofar as it gets wound up in internet freedoms (rightly or wrongly), I say yes. But @Ace is right, there is a line for us to draw on coverage and we have (in the past) drawn it.
Rossyduck Dec 11, 2010 8:57 AM	I have not exactly noticed the established hardcopy press being that supportive of his type of freedom of speach either - althoug has it becomes more sensational they are stirring. I guess the other question that begs an answer, most of these stories were out there already - even a vaguely energetic reporter could have cracked them. So is it the usual sloth of our so called press possibly loath to divert their energy away from shrieking for a free lunch or something even sadder, as in the early days of Nazi Germany. (Apologies to those journalist few and far between that actually hold true our expectations of them)
Rossyduck Dec 11, 2010 11:11 AM	I guess on the subject of "Australian of the Year" - lets hope some reporter stirs somewhere - instead of waiting for a press kit, and can investigate and report to us some facts on the sexual assualt charges - are they real, do the facts support the alegations etc. As a nation Australians already have a global reputation as the sex tourists of asia - having a convicted rapist as Australian of the year would be even worse. Spare a thought to the bloke who actually released the cables - he is now staring down the barrel of a gun - he is the brave one but good on Julina for having the balls to publish.
Johnny Dec 11, 2010 3:31 PM	I think wikileaks is a great concept, because when the governments get so pissed off and even talk of assasinating assange, it proves the fact even more so of the horrible crimes that our governments have been committing behind our backs. Someone needs to tell the US govt and others that we will not take the bullshit they subject us to. I think absolutely everytihg a government does should be in the public domain, if not, how are we to decide who to vote for if we have governments concealing things about what they have been doing?
Ace Dec 11, 2010 5:26 PM	Well @Johnny, I guess at least the Taliban would love you. And who exactly was it in what government that talked about assassination? You wouldn't be referring to that Canadian nut interviewed on Fox news in the US would you? If nothing else @Johnny, you demonstrate very nicely why you and others shouldn't be privy to private conversations the government might have. Your ability to take a tiny snippet of 'information', twist it into something completely wrong and completely out of context seems only matched by your inability to understand that media 'news' in only vaguely related to 'fact'. Unfortunately, judging by the number of gossip magazines sold in Australia every week, I suspect you are not alone.
HubertCumberdale Dec 11, 2010 7:00 PM	Ace wrote: Your ability to take a tiny snippet of 'information', twist it into something completely wrong and completely out of context seems only matched by your inability to understand that media 'news' in only vaguely related to 'fact'. . Ace wrote: Well @Johnny, I guess at least the Taliban would love you. Oh the irony.
mad1k5 Dec 12, 2010 1:45 PM	@KB Dec 10, 2010 8:23 PM Unfortunatly, I don't think even Labor is to blame at all, even if the Coalition were in power, I would hazard at a guess simular thing would happen. We are at the whim of USA unfortunately not much we can do about it.
Ace Dec 12, 2010 11:23 PM	As you don't seem to be a complete idiot @HubertC, I assume you just missed the bit where @Johnny said 'I think absolutely everytihg a government does should be in the public domain'. Not 'more of', but 'absolutely everytihg[sic]'. Not ironic at all.
panto Dec 13, 2010 5:18 PM	All governments are accountable to its people. Transparency ensures this is so. I think Ms PM is too concerned with making the 'right' choice, instead of leading with 'her' choice that she caved to US pressure and made those comments. This was seen by the amount of consultation and deliberation when she took over - more that she was forced into the spotlight than anything else. Can we have a real leader already? One that will stick up for Australians.