EFJ takes part in the Belmarsh Tribunal on Julian Assange
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its president Maja Sever are proud to partner on the Belmarsh Tribunal on Julian Assange at the National Press Club in Washington DC, next Saturday, 9 December.
The extradition case against Julian Assange, who is a member of 20 European journalists’ organisations, is now entering its final phase and the international pressure for his freedom is mounting. From Presidents and Prime Ministers to Nobel Peace Prize winners, the international community is crying out against the injustice of Assange’s prosecution and its implication for press freedom worldwide.
On 2 October 2020, Progressive International launched the Belmarsh Tribunal, a group of legal experts and Julian Assange supporters who held hearings into allegations that the charges against Assange were an “ongoing attack on press freedom”. The tribunal was modelled after the 1966 Russell-Sartre Tribunal, which investigated American involvement in the Vietnam War.
On 9 December, as part of a major Belmarsh Tribunal hearing, leading journalists, lawyers, and human rights defenders will gather at the National Press Club in Washington DC as witnesses to the Biden administration’s crackdown on free speech and the First Amendment.
This Washington DC sitting of the Tribunal will be co-chaired by journalists Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) and Ryan Grim (The Intercept).
Members of the DC sitting of the Tribunal include: Marjorie Cohn, professor of law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, Michael Sontheimer, journalist and historian (formerly Der Spiegel), Mark Feldstein, investigative correspondent and Chair of Journalism at the University of Maryland, Trevor Timm, co-founder of Freedom of the Press Foundation, John Kiriakou, former CIA intelligence officer, Rebecca Vincent, Reporters Without Borders, Ewen MacAskill, journalist and intelligence correspondent (formerly Guardian), Ben Wizner, lawyer and civil liberties advocate with the ACLU, Maja Sever, president of European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Ece Temelkuran, author and journalist, Lina Attalah, Co-founder and Chief Editor of Mada Masr, 2020 Knight International Journalism Award recipient, Sevim Dagdelen, Member of the German Bundestag, Abby Martin, journalist.
Members of the tribunal include: Noam Chomsky, linguist and activist, Jeremy Corbyn, member of UK Parliament and founder of the Peace and Justice Project, John Shipton, father of Julian Assange, Stefania Maurizi, journalist with Il Fatto Quotidiano, Ben Wizner, lead attorney at ACLU of Edward Snowden, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher, The Nation, Betty Medsger, investigative reporter…
We invite you to follow the proceedings online by visiting:
