You'd think there would be more outrage back here in Oz about this blatant injustice against one of our citizens. Oh wait. That's right. We won't even give him a passport.
All I see in the mainstream media here is support for the ruling of Baroness Arbuthnot (wife of James, the conservative house of lords member, former disgraced MP and parliamentary chairmen of the conservative friends of Israel).
Meanwhile radio presenters and TV panel shows mock Assange and his detention, trying to convince the Australian public he is nothing more than a joke.
But they do care that Barnaby Joyce (deputy PM and former citizen of NZ) is shagging a staffer behind his wife's back, so it's nice to see they have their priorities straight.
Really liked the comments from Craig Murray. "Is the British Establishment not endlessly fascinating?". GOLD !!
It is a very sad reflection on the Australian government - that they betray a genuine Australian hero.
It also says a lot about the lack of diversity in the Australian media.
Very disappointing !!!!
Ugh. So awful. And yes, Murray is a brilliant writer. I am [slightly?] shocked to hear that Australian media is just as bought and paid for as its louder American cousins. I thought they liked to have at least a thin veneer of anti-establishment feeling. Sad times.
It was far more than just a thin veneer, there used to be genuine divergence of opinion prevalent in areas of the Australian mainstream media (ABC, SBS and Fairfax). Those dissenting voices have been made redundant (there has been a lot of redundancies, especially in the print media), moved on or had their shows cancelled.
Take “The Age” (Melbourne centric Fairfax newspaper) for example, former bastion of “The Left”. Gone are the proper journalists, replaced by rebranded articles from Bloomberg, Reuters, Washington Post and the like. Comments section have been locked down, as they were full of disgruntled readers calling the stories out as BS, and reiterating why they have already cancelled their subscriptions. You know things are bad when they now have former Liberal party hag Amanda Vanstone as a columnist. Mainstream news here is ugly. Really ugly.
I should try and find some time to research and write up a blog post about the AU media. Might take me a while though, as I have a busy full time day job.