{"id":21445,"date":"2012-09-10T12:21:46","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T11:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=21445"},"modified":"2015-03-09T16:36:44","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T16:36:44","slug":"a-tale-of-two-asylums-assange-palacio-and-media-hypocrisy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/09\/a-tale-of-two-asylums-assange-palacio-and-media-hypocrisy\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Asylums: Assange, Palacio, and Media Hypocrisy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every so often, world affairs offer us paired examples\u2014two nearly identical instances through which we can better understand the role of powerful institutions, like the media. So when Ecuador granted asylum to Australian journalist<\/a> Julian Assange in mid-August [2012], and then, two weeks later, the United States provided asylum to Ecuadorian journalist Emilio Palacio, the two cases laid bare the hypocrisy of the establishment press.<\/p>\n

On August 16, the government of Ecuador offered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange political asylum at its London embassy, after it appeared that fair treatment would be denied<\/a> to him over his alleged sexual misconduct in Sweden\u2014Sweden had\u00a0rejected<\/a> offers to question Assange in London or at the Ecuadorian embassy, providing no explanation.<\/p>\n

Even more troubling, Sweden refused<\/a> to offer any assurance that it wouldn\u2019t extradite Assange to the United States if he voluntarily were to go to that country; the United Kingdom\u2019s Foreign Office, despite multiple inquiries, declined<\/a> to say whether it would exercise its powers to deny a U.S. extradition request once Assange were in Sweden; and the United States gave no indication<\/a> that it will not attempt to extradite Assange. These facts did not bode well for Assange, considering that Vice President Joe Biden once likened<\/a> him to a \u201chigh-tech terrorist\u201d for his work in releasing classified U.S. documents, and that Sweden previously violated<\/a> international law by working with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to transfer two asylum seekers suspected of terrorism to Egypt, where they were later tortured.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> has not focused<\/a> on such issues. Instead, like other media organizations on both sides of the Atlantic, the newspaper has taken the opportunity to highlight Ecuador\u2019s double standards<\/a>. In an August 16 news article<\/a>, the Times<\/em> wrote, \u201cIt struck many as odd that Mr. Assange, who shot to fame as a fighter for media freedom, chose Ecuador as a potential refuge. [President Rafael] Correa has presided over a crackdown on journalists there.\u201d Indeed, the Times<\/em> has often<\/a> seized<\/a> upon the case of the Guayaquil-based El Universo <\/em>newspaper, whose three directors and editorial page editor were sued by Correa, and at one point faced fines of $40 million and three-year prison terms for criminal libel. (Correa had previously indicated<\/a> his willingness to drop the suit if El Universo<\/em> offered an unconditional apology<\/a>; when the men\u2019s sentences were upheld, Correa pardoned<\/a> them of all convictions.)<\/p>\n

In Britain, The Economist<\/em> considered<\/a> Correa \u201ca glasshouse dweller throw[ing] stones\u201d for his \u201clack of regard for freedom of speech at home.\u201d His decision to grant Assange asylum was either “diplomatic or lunatic”; after all, Sweden is \u201ca country whose respect for human rights is beyond serious reproach,\u201d said the magazine, conveniently disregarding Sweden\u2019s violation<\/a> of the United Nations\u2019 Convention Against Torture. Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley, writing for the BBC, admitted<\/a> that \u201cit is true that the U.S. Department of Justice continues an investigation that presumably includes Mr. Assange,\u201d but criticized Assange for ignoring the fact that Ecuador has also practiced \u201cmedia intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the United States, The<\/em> Los Angeles Times<\/em> echoed<\/a> such arguments, observing that \u201ccritics noted the irony of Assange appealing for help to a man accused of cracking down on journalists.\u201d Reuters quoted<\/a> Freedom House, an organization largely funded<\/a> by the U.S. government, which condemned Assange for \u201caligning himself with one of the greatest adversaries of freedom of the press in South America.\u201d Renee Montagne, the host of National Public Radio\u2019s \u201cMorning Edition,\u201d also underscored<\/a> this apparent contradiction: \u201cIt seems rather a great irony that it\u2019s Ecuador granting Julian Assange asylum, when Ecuador does not have a really stellar reputation for the way it treats journalism and freedom of speech.\u201d And The Miami Herald <\/em>ran an August 27 op-ed<\/a> that heaped scorn on the Correa government: \u201cEcuador judging the performance of anybody else\u2019s legal system is a bit like the Octomom offering classes on abstinence.\u201d<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

So on August 30, when the United States granted asylum to El Universo<\/em>\u2019s editorial page editor Emilio Palacio, who fled<\/a> to Miami last year after being sued by Correa, the news media\u2019s reactions were staggering in their hypocrisy. In covering the story, neither Reuters<\/a> nor the BBC<\/a> noted the irony in Palacio\u2019s choice to seek asylum within a country whose record on press freedom includes the six-year<\/a>, due-process-free<\/a> imprisonment<\/a> of Al Jazeera cameraman<\/a> Sami Al-Hajj at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No media outlet quoted critics of the U.S. government over its relentless<\/a> prosecution of whistleblowers<\/a> like the National Security Agency\u2019s Thomas Drake<\/a>, who revealed the waste of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to The Baltimore Sun<\/em>. No news agency found it \u201cironic\u201d or even \u201codd\u201d that the U.S. government granted Palacio asylum, even though in 2011, it pressured<\/a> Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to continue to imprison journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye, who reported on the U.S.<\/a> cluster bombing of dozens of civilians<\/a> in al-Majalah, Yemen. No newspaper accused Palacio of hypocrisy in accepting asylum in the United States, where police have repeatedly assaulted and jailed<\/a> journalists covering Occupy protests.<\/p>\n

Even more noteworthy, perhaps, are the media\u2019s contrasting portrayals of Assange and Palacio\u2019s journalistic merits. Assange has been responsible for providing the public with evidence<\/a> that U.S. helicopter pilots gunned down over a dozen Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters journalists; that Secretary of State Clinton ordered<\/a> U.S. diplomats to collect private information and biometric data on key UN officials; that Yemen deceitfully took responsibility<\/a> for missile attacks that the United States actually carried out; and that the Obama administration pressured<\/a> Spain to terminate its torture probe of Bush officials. In response to these and many other WikiLeaks revelations of wrongdoing and dishonesty at the highest levels of government, the U.S. media either yawned or gushed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Palacio, on the other hand, is the author of an example of abject journalistic malfeasance. His 2011 El Universo <\/em>op-ed<\/a> falsely accused \u201cthe Dictator,\u201d President Correa, of committing \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d by purportedly ordering troops to fire at a \u201chospital full of civilians and innocent people\u201d during a coup attempt<\/a> against him in 2010. Palacio didn\u2019t provide a shred of evidence for his claims. But the U.S. media have scrubbed the baselessness of Palacio\u2019s charges from their coverage of his asylum approval\u2014Reuters said<\/a> that Palacio simply \u201ccriticized [Correa\u2019s] actions,\u201d and NPR stations around the country aired a flattering interview<\/a> with Palacio\u2019s lawyer, Sandra Grossman, who said there was \u201cmuch debate and disagreement in Ecuador about what really happened that day, so my client addressed this event in his article and criticized the president for his handling of the revolt.\u201d Regarding U.S. approval of Palacio\u2019s asylum request, Grossman added, \u201cI see President Correa\u2019s actions as very contradictory, considering how he treats journalists in his own country. And maybe the United States is using this opportunity to make that point as well.\u201d A point was made, although not the one Palacio\u2019s attorney had in mind.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Despite running libelous commentary, El Universo <\/em>has become the darling around which the U.S. media have rallied. A reflection of the dishonorable conventions of the mainstream press can be witnessed in this year\u2019s Maria Moors Cabot Prizes<\/a>, the oldest awards in international journalism, which are administered by the preeminent Columbia School of Journalism. Next month, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger<\/a> will present the Cabot certificate of citation to El Universo<\/em>, honoring the paper for having \u201ccourageously defended\u201d the right \u201cto speak out for a democratic society.\u201d Apparently, allowing Palacio\u2019s blatant falsehoods to be printed on its pages does not preclude El Universo<\/em> from receiving a prestigious journalism award.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the gold medalists of the 74th annual Cabot Prize for outstanding reporting on Latin America and the Caribbean include Juan Forero. Forero\u2019s $5,000 award was announced just days after The Washington Post<\/em> published his piece<\/a> on threats to Latin American democracy, which scrupulously excluded any mention<\/a> of the recent overthrows of left-leaning, democratically elected leaders by reactionary elites in Paraguay and Honduras. But Forero\u2019s omissions did not prevent the Cabot Prizes\u2019 official press release<\/a> from describing him as \u201can equal opportunity reporter\u201d whose work uncovers \u201cabuses by the powerful across all ideological scales.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the cases of Assange, Palacio and the award-winning El Universo<\/em> demonstrate, the establishment press doesn\u2019t simply observe hypocrisy and irony\u2014it embodies them.<\/p>\n

_______________________<\/p>\n

Keane Bhatt is an activist in Washington, D.C. He has worked in the United States and Latin America on a variety of campaigns related to community development and social justice. His analyses and opinions have appeared in a range of outlets, including NPR, <\/em>The Nation, <\/em>The St. Petersburg Times, CNN En Espa\u00f1ol, Truthout, and Upside Down World. He is the author of the NACLA blog \u201cManufacturing Contempt<\/a>,\u201d which critically analyzes the U.S. press and its portrayal of the hemisphere. Follow his blog on Twitter @KeaneBhatt<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

NACLA-North American Congress on Latin America \u2013 Knowledge Beyond Borders.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 nacla.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every so often, world affairs offer us paired examples\u2014two nearly identical instances through which we can better understand the role of powerful institutions, like the media. So when Ecuador granted asylum to Australian journalist Julian Assange in mid-August [2012], and then, two weeks later, the United States provided asylum to Ecuadorian journalist Emilio Palacio, the two cases laid bare the hypocrisy of the establishment press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-whistleblowing-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}