3 days ago July 30, 2014 5:07PM
news.com.au
WIKILEAKS co-founder Julian Assange has accused the federal government of “blindfolding the Australian public” over what it calls an “unprecedented” case of censorship.
The whistleblower website has published an explosive Victorian Supreme Court suppression order, concerning a corruption case that involves former and current leaders of Asian nations.
“With this order, the worst in living memory, the Australian government is not just gagging the Australian press, it is blindfolding the Australian public,” Mr Assange said in a statement.
“This is not simply a question of the Australian Government failing to give this international corruption case the public scrutiny it is due. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop must explain why she is threatening every Australian with imprisonment in an attempt to cover up an embarrassing corruption scandal involving the Australian Government.”
Julian Assange speaks to Meet The Press and News Ltd journalist Charles Miranda inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: News Limited
The gag order justifies suppressing the information on the grounds that it would prevent damage to Australia’s international relations and that it may damage the reputations of the other individuals who are not the subject of charges in the case.
It also says the information may put national security at risk.
“The concept of ‘national security’ is not meant to serve as a blanket phrase to cover up serious corruption allegations involving government officials, in Australia or elsewhere,” Mr Assange said.
“It is in the public interest for the press to be able to report on this case, which concerns the subsidiaries of the Australian central bank. Who is brokering our deals, and how are we brokering them as a nation? Corruption investigations and secret gag orders for ‘national security’ reasons are strange bedfellows. It is ironic that it took Tony Abbott to bring the worst of ‘Asian values’ to Australia.”
University of Melbourne Law School senior lecturer Jason Bosland says Victorian courts have a “culture of suppression”.
“The rate at which they make (suppression orders) is much higher than any other jurisdiction in Australia,” he said.
Mr Bosland investigated the number of suppression orders made in Victoria between 2008 and 2012 and found that Victorian courts issued more than 200 each year.
He found that the reasons for making the orders were often unclear and the gags were in place for an unlimited time period, meaning they were rarely revoked.
Mr Bosland said the number of suppression orders in Victorian courts ballooned in the early 200s at the time of the so-called gangland trials.
The trials were interrelated and held concurrently so names and details were suppressed so as not to prejudice the outcomes.
“But that justification doesn’t really wash anymore,” Mr Bosland said.
“There is a culture of suppression that the court just hasn’t been able to shake.”
He said courts now had a habit of suppressing information when it wasn’t always necessary.
“There is a major problem in Victorian law courts about scrutiny,” he said.
However, he said the national security concern cited in the WikiLeaks example was a justifiable reason to suppress.
The Open Court Act followed Ms Bosland’s study, which now compels courts to place a time limit on suppression orders.
Accordingly, the suppression order that WikiLeaks published is due to be lifted in June of 2019.
WikiLeaks is a non-profit organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous sources.
Mr Assange co-founded the site in 2006 and received notoriety in 2010 when WikiLeaks published classified US military and diplomatic documents.
He has lived a solitary life in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since he was granted political asylum there in 2012. He is wanted in Sweden over sex assault charges, which he denies, and fears being turned over to the US to face criminal charges.
A policeman watches the crowd as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in 2012. Picture: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Source: Getty Images
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