The truth is never welcome…
We live in a world in which liars are rewarded. The rare few who try to convey the truth are stripped of everything. Informers are the kings of the pavement, the dread of the neighbourhood, and are regarded as charitable sanctimonious do-gooders guaranteeing social morality.
Three whistleblowers are known worldwide: Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Public enemies to be burned in the public square… the American one. The first, for having denounced, in her job as a military analyst, abuses committed by American soldiers against Iraqi civilians. She owes her highly conditional freedom to a suicide attempt.
Edward Snowden is a CIA computer specialist who leaked to the media programmes for the mass surveillance of the British and… American population. He fled and has become Russian for good.
Current events have put the spotlight on Julian Assange, who created Wikileaks. It is a non-profit non-governmental organisation founded in 2006 that publishes classified documents, the leaks, from anonymous sources. WikiLeaks is not affiliated with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation. The young man is of course being pursued by our… American friends. Above all, he revealed the way in which the United States and their allies waged war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange has been under house arrest in London since 2010, where he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, from which he was eventually expelled, only to be locked up in a London cell. The British courts have just formally authorised his extradition to the United States, which could happen within 28 days.
Art to the rescue of freedom of expression
An Italian artist, Davide Dormino, created the concept Anything to Say? A sculpture in bronze and a travelling art installation. Already seen in Berlin, Paris, Geneva and Brussels in 2020. Manning, Snowden and Assange are depicted standing on chairs. A fourth chair is free for anyone who wishes to speak out. I feel like shouting #freeassange from it.
What is at stake is freedom of expression. We must stop allowing the legitimate right to the truth to be trampled on. That is what we have been living through for far too long. Whistleblowers should be glorified, honoured and protected as heroes. It is quite the opposite. It is a witch hunt.
A European law has just laid down a rule on whistleblowers. It is being steered by the Liège liberal who went off to shelter behind immunity as a European Commissioner. Its grey areas will give him plenty of freedom to repress. Forewarned is forearmed, dear BAM readers…
“Worse than the sound of boots, the silence of slippers” - Max Frisch
By Pietje Schramouille for BAM!
The opinions expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of BAM!
