{"id":232971,"date":"2023-04-10T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=232971"},"modified":"2023-04-09T07:16:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-09T06:16:01","slug":"belmarsh-warden-blocks-assange-from-meeting-with-reporters-sans-frontieres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/04\/belmarsh-warden-blocks-assange-from-meeting-with-reporters-sans-frontieres\/","title":{"rendered":"Belmarsh Warden Blocks Assange from Meeting with Reporters Sans Fronti\u00e8res"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

RSF director of operations and campaigns Rebecca Vincent and RSF Secretary-General Christoph Deloire
(Photo from Noemie Bonnafous\/RSF)<\/p><\/div>\n

4 Apr 2023 – <\/em>The warden of Her Majesty\u2019s Prison Belmarsh blocked representatives with the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) from visiting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, despite previously reviewing RSF’s request and agreeing to grant access.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Vincent, the director of operations and campaigns for RSF, declared, \u201cWe followed all rules this morning. We were there very early with all required documentation. Without even checking our documentation, we were told that we would not be allowed in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first official that we spoke to said that they had received \u2018intelligence\u2019 that we were journalists, and therefore we would not be allowed to visit,\u201d Vincent added. \u201cNo further discussion was possible. We were informed that the decision had been taken by the prison governor directly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vincent and RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire flew from Paris. They were prepared to meet Assange on April 4 just after 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

RSF announced to the news media that Vincent and Deloire, along with Julian\u2019s wife Stella Assange, would be at the prison. A press conference had been scheduled for after the visit, and if they had been allowed into the facility, RSF would have been the first NGO to visit Assange in prison.<\/p>\n

But Jenny Louis, the warden who is referred to as the \u201cgovernor\u201d of Belmarsh, stopped RSF from meeting with Assange and refused to come speak with the RSF representatives after they demanded an explanation from Belmarsh staff.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cJulian was very upset that he wasn\u2019t able to have a meeting with Christophe and with Rebecca. He had important things to discuss with them,\u201d Stella declared after RSF was denied access. \u201cThis decision by UK authorities to prevent this meeting from happening is ludicrous. It\u2019s an arbitrary interference with Julian\u2019s freedom of association with Reporters Without Borders, which has probably been the organization campaigning loudest for his freedom for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stella contended that Julian had tried to \u201cfight back by having meetings with his allies.\u201d The prison governor\u2019s response was to \u201coutrageously\u201d interfere and prevent him from speaking with people who would challenge the circumstances of his indefinite detention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came as an NGO, as NGO representatives to visit Julian,\u201d Deloire stated. \u201cSo clearly the official explanation of this denial of access is not sincere. It was decided and communicated with bad faith. This is [further] evidence that in this case of Julian Assange nothing is ever normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Vincent, a formal complaint was submitted. Assange\u2019s legal team submitted a complaint too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will keep seeking access. We call on Belmarsh Prison to reverse this decision and respect Assange\u2019s visitation rights,\u201d Vincent urged.<\/p>\n

While RSF representatives had their visit blocked, Australia\u2019s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Stephen Smith was allowed to meet<\/a> with Assange the same day.<\/p>\n

The Australia Broadcasting Corporation reported that it was the \u201cfirst time Australia’s top diplomat in the UK [had] visited Mr. Assange since he was locked up in Belmarsh Prison nearly four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his way into the high security prison Mr Smith told the ABC he was pleased that he was able to visit Mr Assange.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“No Australian official has seen him since November of 2019,” he said. “That’s a very long time.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“I’m very keen just to have a conversation with him, check on his health and wellbeing and hopefully see whether regular visits might be a feature of the relationship with Mr Assange going forward.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Assange was eager to have a meeting with Smith so that he could ask Smith about Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u2019s efforts to free him from prison.<\/p>\n

In January, it was reported<\/a> that a Belmarsh prison officer had accused the prison warden of harassment and bullying. That officer allegedly faced retaliation as they were investigated for \u201csecurity breaches,\u201d which included \u201cclaims of corrupt behavior and security violations.\u201d They were fired then reinstated after appealing the termination.<\/p>\n

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson tweeted<\/a>, \u201cA press freedom NGO barred from visiting a political prisoner and a journalist (after visit had previously been confirmed). This is not Russia, China or North Korea but the United Kingdom. Remember this next time the UK [government] tries to lecture you on lack of press freedom elsewhere.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now about a week away from the four-year anniversary of Julian being inside Belmarsh prison,\u201d Stella noted. \u201cJulian\u2019s presence in this prison is a scandal. It\u2019s a scandal on every level. How is it that they can prevent him from meeting with the secretary-general and the global campaigns director of Reporters Without Border?\u201d<\/p>\n

Vincent concluded, \u201cAt every stage and every level, UK authorities have defaulted to secrecy and barriers, and made our jobs difficult\u2014barring us from prison, making it nearly impossible to get into court proceedings, refusing to accept our delivery of petitions. What do they have to hide?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite these endless barriers, we\u2019ll keep up our global campaign to [free Assange]. We will hold the US & UK governments to account. He will not be forgotten. We will keep trying to visit him in prison. We will keep monitoring in court. We will keep fighting everywhere we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kevin Gosztola is <\/em>managing editor of <\/em>Shadowproof, host of the “<\/em>Dissenter Weekly,” co-host of the podcast “<\/em>Unauthorized Disclosure,” and member of Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

4 Apr 2023 – The warden of the Belmarsh Prison blocked representatives of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) from visiting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, despite previously agreeing to grant access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":232985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[229,2375,918,2732,2882,487,378,651,234,3035,572,639,292,70,126,921,113],"class_list":["post-232971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-activism","tag-alternative-media","tag-assange","tag-belmarsh-prison","tag-engaged-journalism","tag-human-rights","tag-journalism","tag-justice","tag-media","tag-reporters-without-borders-rsf","tag-torture","tag-uk","tag-un","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-whistleblowing","tag-wikileaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232971","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=232971"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233226,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232971\/revisions\/233226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}