Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Roger Annis, Nozomi Hayase, Janine Bandcroft May 10th, 2018

https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/2018/05/gorilla-radio-with-chris-cook-roger.html

Last week, the United States delivered more than 200 Javelin missiles to the coup regime in Ukraine. Following four years of rule from Kyiv, Petro Poroshenko's government is plagued by corruption, and is still fighting separatists in the eastern region of the country where his illegal seizure of power was never accepted.

Though the Western press routinely dismisses Ukrainian resistance to Poroshenko as "pro-Russian", portraying the military conflict in the country as Putin's proxy war of annexation, less mentioned is the role the United States and its European allies played in both the overthrow of the democratically elected Yanukovych government or their continued support of ongoing hostilities.

Roger Annis is a longtime socialist and trade union activist. He's a prolific essayist, whose website, A Socialist in Canada covers a broad swath of topics and issues from a social justice and peace perspective. He's followed events in Ukraine since 2014, and visited both Eastern Ukraine and Crimea to see firsthand what the coup has meant for the people there.

Roger Annis in the first half.

And; last weekend, another UN General Assembly declared World Press Freedom Day passed without a word being spoken in that august body in favour of the release of journalist/prisoner, Julian Assange. The co-founder and face of WikiLeaks has missed seven World Press Freedom Days confined on pain of arrest and imprisonment should he venture out the door of Ecuador's London embassy; and though the UN says Britain's promise of imprisonment against him is arbitrary and has no standing in international law, Julian languishes still. Notably absent too these last years is support from Assange's fourth estate colleagues; perhaps because Julian Assange and WikiLeaks don't fit neatly into traditional media's mold.

Dr. Nozomi Hayase is a columnist, essayist, and author whose writing and activism she says is, "dedicated to liberation of all people". Her articles on free speech, transparency, and the vital role of whistleblowers in global society appear at Counterpunch, CommonDreams, Dissident Voice, and Antiwar.com among other places. Nozomi's new book, 'WikiLeaks, the Global Fourth Estate: History Is Happening', a compendium of her many articles on the topic, is available now online at her website, nozomihayase.com.

Nozomi Hayase and dispelling the distortions of what WikiLeaks is and does in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and CFUV Radio broadcaster at-large, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things going on in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Roger Annis and the papering over of western complicity in Kyiv's war against eastern Ukraine.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/