Marcel van Silfhout, former dutch investigative journalist and supporter of Julian Assange speaks out in an episode of Blckbx.tv
Lets move on to Julian Assange,
because time is running out for him.
The whistleblower has been imprisoned
for years, the last 3.5 years in isolation.
How long will he survive
and what support can he count on?
Well Marcel, we can perhaps assume
from the average Blckbx viewer…
that everyone knows
who Julian Assange is,
but just for the people who don’t…
Who is this man?
I wrote a column about him today
on Indepen you can find it.
There I literally say:
If Julian Assange dies,
the free West will die with him.
He was a model for me
when I was an investigative journalist…
at Zembla at the time.
(dutch news program)
The board of directors of the
Association of Investigative Journalism.
I’ve been at at BNR radio.
And all those scandals
had just come out.
It was founded in 2006 [WikiLeaks]…
and around 2010
it was really at a peak.
An incredible amount
of information was released.
And I really thought:
“Wow, THE journalistic revolution!”
Because he was able to…
He was actually a hacker, a programmer,
and then he became a
journalist there in Australia.
He was able to create a website
where anyone could post all their stuff…
as whistleblower, completely anonymously,
untraceably, and therefore safely.
Oh, wow! That is of course
every journalist’s dream.
Especially for investigative
journalists like us.
So I was very hopeful.
And then you had Snowden,
who has also revealed, that…
in fact all citizens are being
spied on all over the world.
Why do we, as citizens, have to
be spied on at all, 24/7 surveillance?
Of course I knew quite a
few people from this area.
It really pisses me off!
Because he really could die.
I just can’t get my head around it.
When I look at that, I mean…
This is reminiscent of Victor Hugo,
those exiles from the French Revolution.
He has simply been an exile in that
Equatorian embassy for ten years.
And now three and a half
years in solitary confinement.
Why did they lock him up?
Well, America wants his extradition.
And that has still not been implemented.
And when he goes to America,
he’ll get in a similar situation.
It looks like a medieval dungeon
he is thrown into.
The miracle is that he
encountered Stella Assange…
during the period that
he was in that embassy.
They got engaged, married
and children.
He has got two young children.
I just can’t wrap my head around
the fact that whistleblowers…
I know about it,
I know a lot of whistleblowers.
I think it is also a
personal trauma, for myself.
During my time with Zembla (program)
I met quite a few.
Really lots of whistleblowers,
also from the Netherlands.
And when you see how
the government deals with them…
and when you see how the people,
the citizens act like: “Oh, who cares?”
I think it is an
extremely dramatic fact,
what I hear from
sources around me,
that it is really serious.
And why are we
thinking about him today?
Last week was another
campaign day,
I believe last Thursday,
was Julian Assange Day.
And I thought,
“What do you mean DAY?”
Not DAY, we just have to make sure
he’s free before Christmas, all of us!
I also can’t wrap my head around
the fact that all my colleagues:
The Guardian, The New York Times,
you name them…
they all showed off
with those articles,
(probably they were actually jealous)
but either way, that they’re not
standing up for him right now…
I find it impossible.
Dear Marcel,
“FreeAssange Day. What do you mean “DAY”? you ask. Good question indeed.
As the “inventors” of the “FreeAssangeDay” idea, we feel called to explain it to you, and we’re happy to do so. In public, here on the site as we did at the source. And maybe we even hope for your contribution….
The essence of the idea to have this “FreeAssange Day” officially (by Stella) declared in the first place was purely to make a statement. A global statement to provoke the established powers little bit and to show that “we” ourselves can also declare an “international day for…” just like they (the UN), in my not so humble opinion, have been doing too often lately and actually out of their own social/political interest in order to somewhat pave the way to their Agenda2030. Just for fun, have a look at their list of official international days. Only an “International Day for Cats with Three Legs” is missing, so to speak.
Apart from that also simply the fact that Dec. 7 marks the day Julian lost his freedom may be acknowledged, right?
But above all: it was specifically not meant to be a one-off event on that precise day itself (here indeed: “what do you mean ‘DAY?” is appropriate), but rather to work towards it every day starting from its announcement (the idea was born about two weeks earlier) up to a climax on the day itself (together with all possible spontaneous initiatives by individual people and groups).
The accompanying proposal was, that from the day of the announcement everyone would take the action on a personal level to wear their #FreeAssange button(s) and or t-shirt visibly EVERY DAY. In the first place, to grant Julian a daily, repetitive exposure that MSM so purposefully denies him. And second, to gain new supporters who should then become button-wearers themselves and thus setting off a chain reaction with the intention of eventually being able to exert sufficient public pressure on the tribunal in London that has to decide on his extradition.
Unfortunately, this concept was also not immediately picked up by the official Assange team (also too busy with Day X preparations), so the official declaration of “FreeAssange Day” did not happen until one day beforehand on December 6.
The purported chain reaction has thus logically failed to materialize, yet it has had some resonance in social media. we consider it an honor that it even reached blckbx. If FreeAssangeDay had not been declared, would this broadcast dedicated to him have existed?
Anyway, “working toward it” was thus possible anymore. But maybe the current situation is even better. The two weeks from the birth of the idea would have been barely enough time anyway. And suddenly it became: why not just turn things around? Instead of having FreeAssange Day as the highlight at the end, why not take it at the beginning, as the starting shot? So from the official statement it has now become: “EVERY DAY is #FreeAssangeDay until he is FREE!”
Shortly thereafter, Day-X got the final date (nicely planned by those in charge, so right before Christmas). Hopefully, this Feb. 20 deadline means nothing but more incentive for the “wear your #FreeAssange button every day” concept. And since there’s more time to implement it, making a chain reaction still possible.
I understood your skeptical “What do you mean, “DAY”?” very well Marcel. Hopefully you are a little less skeptical of the broader idea.
To answer a possible next question in advance, if Julian is indeed released then FreeAssange Day can be renamed to, say, International Truth Day, or whatever Julian himself would want.
Here is the official UN International Days list by the way. Mind you, amongst so much stuff they don’t even have a Truth day yet: https://www.un.org/en/observances/list-days-weeks
