On January 20, 2023, Democracy Now! is livestreaming the Belmarsh Tribunal from Washington, D.C. The event will feature expert testimony from journalists, whistleblowers, lawyers, publishers and parliamentarians on assaults to press freedom and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Watch here live at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, January 20. Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and Srecko Horvat, the co-founder of DiEM25, will chair the tribunal, which is being organized by Progressive International and the Wau Holland Foundation.

0:00 – Introductions

15:33 – Ben Wizner, lead attorney at ACLU of Edward Snowden

21:20 – Jeffrey Sterling, lawyer and former CIA employee

29:05 – Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher, The Nation

32:35 – Margaret Kunstler, civil rights attorney

39:09 – Stefania Maurizi, investigative journalist, Il Fatto Quotidiano

47:20 – Jeremy Corbyn, member of U.K. Parliament and founder of the Peace and Justice Project

56:16 – Steven Donziger, human rights attorney

1:05:19 – Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief, WikiLeaks

1:17:12 – Jesselyn Radack, national security and human rights attorney

1:25:07 – Chip Gibbons, policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent

1:31:45 – Kevin Gosztola, managing editor of Shadowproof

1:38:45 – John Shipton, father of Julian Assange

1:50:19 – Betty Medsger, investigative reporter

2:01:20 – Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower

2:09:50 – Suchitra Vijayan, writer, photographer & activist

2:15:56 – Noam Chomsky, linguist and activist 2:18:42 – Final remarks

2:22:03 – Roger Waters performance

Belmarsh Tribunal

https://act.progressive.international/belmarsh-tribunal-dc/

In the United States and around the world, state actors are cracking down on journalists, sources, and publishers in a globally coordinated campaign to disrupt the public’s access to information and shut off their sources of dissent.

A landmark case in this campaign is that of Julian Assange, the publisher who founded WikiLeaks, exposed crimes by the United States government, and now faces 175 years in prison if extradited from the Belmarsh Prison where he is currently held in the United Kingdom.

Inspired by the Russell-Sartre Tribunals of the Vietnam War, the Belmarsh Tribunal brings together a range of expert witnesses – from constitutional lawyers, to acclaimed journalists and human rights defenders – to present evidence of this attack on publishers and to seek justice for the crimes they expose.

The First Amendment — and the life of Julian Assange — are at stake. Join us in person or online.

Day of the Imprisoned Writer: The Case of Julian Assange & Write to Julian Assange

In June this year UK Home Secretary Priti Patel signed an order to extradite Julian Assange to the US. There, the co-founder of WikiLeaks would face 18 criminal charges, including espionage, with a combined prison sentence of 175 years.

Julian Assange’s father John Shipton has strenuously and creatively pursued freedom for Julian, refocusing his case in the public eye. Stella Assange met Julian Assange in London in 2011 when she joined his international legal team. They have two children together, and married in March 2022 in Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London. Barrister and renowned international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson has represented Julian Assange and WikiLeaks for almost a decade and is intimately familiar with the case.

At this event held on the Day of the Imprisoned Writer and presented in partnership with PEN Melbourne, Shipton, Stella Assange and Robinson explore the ongoing case of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, and its wider implications for freedom of speech, with award-winning journalist Rachael Brown, who covered Julian Assange’s extradition hearing as an ABC Europe correspondent.

Presented in partnership with PEN Melbourne.