(A half baked picture stolen from the Internet.)
Hello to all my recent and previous friends,
I start this text with a request. I request that you uphold freedom and grant it to future generations. I request that you become a witness for future generations, of the censorship on the Internet, of the censorship against journalism, against individual citizens, incarcerated, released, and incarcerated again like Chelsea Manning. Think about it, and write about it, of course I want freedom to be restored today, but as a witness I do not wish there is no record in history of the censorship, and the attacks on freedom, just because I didn't write or talk about it.
It is a given fact that, governments who control the flow of information, can dictate what media organizations publish, and manipulate the information available on the Internet as they see fit. As you can see below on the picture, the current government of Ecuador attempted to do so with Julian Assange "mensajes a través de las redes sociales", to silence him, something the previous government never did. Actually, many would want and attempt to control WikiLeaks, because WikiLeaks honors the truth and transparency, and the protection of its sources.
Still.
The Internet is where you will find hope and freedom. And freedom, my dear friends, is always under attack everywhere, and everyday, but we to the west, used to think it did not happen on the Internet. We used to. To those who don't yet understand, you need freedom to explore, without freedom you can neither become a bad or a good Columbus, a hacker, or anything else. The same goes for journalism in the digital age, if journalists cannot publish, who is left to publish, to try and make important information see the light of day?
Is this the moment in history, when the stakes are high, that one plus one makes three? The math is quite simple, you can have a hacker, but you cannot have a journalist in a hacker, so you will need a hacker, a journalist, and something, someone else different. A being you cannot yet conceive in thought or reality.
"Hybrids are nonsense."
The wave of censorship from the west, is insidious and dangerous, it has threatened hackers, journalists, and it is a threat to everybody else. And I do refer to Julian Assange, who created and headed WikiLeaks, he is a journalist and publisher, who was himself a hacker in the past. The hybrid people would think is impossible to even exist, the person who is now in solitary confinement in the Belmarsh prison, the UK Higher Majesty's high security prison, is real. You can hate the hacker in him, you can deny the journalist in him, you can envy him, and bid his life low, either way the fact is, you will fall short of his accomplishments. And you will probably not be an hybrid.
Next.
WikiLeaks is what WikiLeaks must be, a new kind of media organization, the first of a new category we are inspired by.
My dear friends, I was in London at the HMP Belmarsh prison and I was unable to see Julian Assange, because he was held incommunicado since his arrest on April 11, when he was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy by British Police Officers, until his first social visit on May 7, after I had left London. I knew already, I had little to hope for. I was there at the SouthWark Crown Court on May 1, and the next day at the Westminster Magistrate's Court for the first extradition hearing. For the record, I had been at the Westminster Magisrate's Court on April 29, and the officers said they didn't know anything about the hearing scheduled for May 2. Here is the hearing being announced by WikiLeaks on April 30 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1123242724159819776
It's sad that, Ecuador handed over Assange's entire legal defence to the United States, documents, and devices, found in his belongings, and held at the embassy since his arrest. Against a request for return. Hereby, my message to future generations, may I put it in a single statement:
"When this ever happen again to someone like Mr. Julian Assange, please be ready, to take everything, and everyone down with you." I know, we should be.
At the HMP Belmarsh.
A hell hole.
