Leading Swedish journalist Jan Guillou can Contribute to Julian Assange’s Release

NewsVoice is an online news and debate channel that started in 2011. The purpose is to publish independent news, debate articles and comments as well as analyzes.
publicerad 7 december 2022
- News@NewsVoice
Julian Assange. Foto: RT.com

OPINION. NewsVoice is republishing – without asking for permission – Jan Guillou’s contemptuous opinion text “Julian Assange – a little bastard without principles” a text that disappeared from Aftonbladet’s website. We do it for several reasons. It has a great public interest in the debate about freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and the tendency of states to suppress these freedoms.

Jan Guillou’s article published on April 24, 2011 (it remains on the Web Archive) opened “a can of worms” that triggered journalists and politicians that it was free to spread the same kind of contempt for Assange.

Two of the main reasons for this re-publication are to stop the torture of truth-teller Julian Assange who is imprisoned and drugged in the high-security Belmarsh prison in England and to get him released after more than 10 years of torture because he and Bradley Manning exposed US war crimes in Iraq, crimes that Washington never had to answer for.

At some point, justice must prevail over the repression of truth-tellers by journalists, politicians, and states. What do you think? Are you on the right side of history?

Jan Guillou, 2015. Foto: Peter Knutson (peterknutson.se)
Jan Guillou, 2015. Photo: Peter Knutson (peterknutson.se). License: CC BY 3.0, Wiki Commons

Jan Guillou apologized vaguely but it is not enough

However, Guillou unexpectedly and vaguely apologized for what he wrote about Assange in 2011. He did so in an article titled “Which journalists want to take the risk of associating with Assange?” on January 2, 2022.

Guillou writes:

“What I once wrote a long time ago about the political prisoner at Belmarsh prison, Julian Assange, was nonsense. Not untrue, but nonsense and thus lousy journalism. The explanation is embarrassing enough that I couldn’t tell the difference between the main story and the side story, one of journalism’s most elementary ground rules.”

The self-examination that Guillou exhibits is of course both unexpected and positive, but it still remains to be seen whether Guillou, who opened “a can of worms” in 2011, can think of calling on Washington to drop the prosecution and thus join New York Times etcetera and some presidents who also recently demanded Assange’s release and “pardon”.

Guillou’s article “the little bastard without principles” was online in the years 2011-2021 according to the Web Archive. It’s 10 years. How much negative impact did the article have on the police, prosecutors, and citizens’ perception of Assange?

Julian Assange must be saved from untimely death, serious physical and mental irreparable harm, or 100 years in prison in the United States.

Guillou’s article needs to remain online for the time being. It represents the attitude of many bad politicians and system journalists in Sweden.

By Torbjorn Sassersson, editor and founder of NewsVoice

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  • Ridiculous; The prosecution happened because the elites Wikileaks project had been exposed by attentive observers for what it was – a limited hangout.
    A controlled opposition; an operation intended to be used for manipulating peoples perception and turning them against China Russia Iran and the nations targeted under the Arab Spring meme
    It had been exposed although the naive who tend to like it simple good or bad. Hero or traitor etc fell for the version that the elites were aiming for.
    The martyre version.
    Thus instead of exposing WL and Assange as an imperial instrument, the admirers turned Assange into a martyre and Assange bravely kept a straight face rather than blowing his own cover.
    Thus he ought to be given a way out for being lojal to his imperial masters.
    He is too smart not to have understood that connection but the celebrity status he got may have manipulated him to underestimate the risks involved.
    I have been pointing this out for years and I believe that could have saved him long ago.
    Hailing him as a hero has only sealed his fate and made his situation worse.
    However I am not of the opinion that Assange should be seen as an honest opposition. He collaborated too much with the elites and WL was part of an operation undermining several targeted nations even though few seem to remember that now.
    Go back and check how WL was early on exposed, Around 2009 and a few years on until the swedish honey trap slammed.

    • I do not necesarilly disagree with your back story to the creation of Wikileaks.

      But this is history.

      What happened to prudence and foresight?

      By supporting the global deep state in its sacrifice of someone who might be one of their own, this will still set an example for how evertone else will be treated.

      “Highest justice – highest injustice”

      — Cicero

      What happened to mercy?

      Would it be a crime to show mercy to Assange, even though we may believe he is, or at least once was, a globalist agent?

      Having one’s head in the right place is one thing.

      Having one’s heart there, too, is another.

      Let’s bring them together.

      • In my view making a hero out of a controlled opposition figure is what enforced his martyredom. By not bringing that to peoples attention he became what his early critics predicted – a warning example to be used against other opinion makers. It was a mistake not to call out fraud!
        And it still is the way I look at it.
        The leftists still dont admit that Daniel Ellsberg was controlled opposition and there are many other important facts they refuse to touch. And that enables the elites playing both sides.
        But if you believe that Guillou role has any importance then obviously he should do what he believes is right.
        But I dont think it was important.
        The imperial elite agents etc dont obey Guillou in any form or shape. They do however care about peoples perceptions and try to form them. Thus when some of their operations are exposed they may try to save it.
        At that point people should have called out fraud to convince the elites to drop the whole thing and let Assange out through the back door.

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