Contributed from Victoria

The ABC’s Four Corners joined in on the attack of Julian Assange last month. Instead of an example of good fact-finding journalism, it turned out to a gutter tabloid piece of work, out to trash the man’s personality, relying on gossip and innuendo.

Filmmaker and journalist John Pilger quite right to and condemn the poor excuse for a documentary.

Assange Lawyer Jennifer Robinson also came out against the Four Corers program, saying that she had taken part in an interview for it, on the understanding that it was about Assange’s prosecution.

Assange Lawyer Jennifer Robinson also came out against the Four Corers program, saying that she had taken part in an interview for it, on the understanding that it was about Assange’s prosecution.

“It tuned into a prosecution of his personality,” she said.

Other prominent people have stepped up against this abuse.

It would be wrong however, to dump all the blame on this one program. A systematic and ongoing systematic is being waged by a host of major media outlets. None more so, than those under the control of Rupert Murdoch, and it takes the form of a massive propaganda campaign to convince the public that this man does not deserve to be defended.

In one stroke, the real issues are buried. These issues are that the lengths to which powerful people are prepared to go to silence the facts contained in leaked documents that WikiLeaks published, that some governments are prepared to stretch and even contravene their own law to have an individual extradited to face what can only be called a political show trial, that the right of journalists to report freely and protect their sources is being squeezed, and that Julian Assange is being cruelly treated and subjected to what experts have called torture.

Buried is the fact that US army whistleblower Chelsea Manning has been imprisoned indefinitely, for refusing to give testimony that would condemn Assange. One would think that our self-proclaimed media champions of justice would recognise this as a clear-cut case of violation of justice.

The extent that people continue to wag the finger at Julian Assange, join in on repeating he is not a nice person, helped Donald Trump, hates women and did not feed the cat, is the measure of the success of the propaganda onslaught. It is the measure of the extent to which otherwise good people have allowed the passage of measures that ultimately undermine us all.

Thanks to those who continue to support Julian Assange and the work of WikiLeaks, the other side of the story is filtering through.

Julian’s mother Christine Assange recently tweeted: “My son is being slowly, cruelly and unlawfully assassinated by the US and UK governments, for multi award winning journalism revealing war crimes and Corruption.”

she cited the Nils Melzer, expert and special Rapporteur to the United Nations on torture, who said:

“Since 2010, when WikiLeaks started publishing evidence of war crimes committed by US forces, we have seen a sustained and concerted effort by several Sates towards getting Mr Assange extradited to the United States for prosecution, raising serious concern over the criminalisation of investigative journalism in violation of both the US Constitution and human rights law.”

The Australian government should be named in this list.

Nils Melzer added: “In the course of the past nine years, Mr Assange has been exposed to persistent, progressively severe abuse ranging from systematic judicial persecution and arbitrary confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy, to his oppressive isolation, harassment and surveillance inside the embassy, and from deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation, to open investigation of violence and even repeated calls for his assassination.”

It is time for those who value justice to stand up. It is time for those who have been mesmerised by a deliberately crafted diversion, to wake up from the trance, see what is really going on and get back to the real issues.

All of us must realise, that Julian Assange is being persecuted because he showed us that some very powerful people have been screwing us all and will do anything. to stop their gravy train from being upset.