#12: Web Summit 2023: Interview with Stella Assange, Lawyer and Human Rights Defender

December 04, 2023 / 6 min. read

Grilled by TechBBQ #12

Exclusive interview with Stella Assange, Lawyer and Human Rights Defender

Web Summit connects people & ideas that change the world.

I attended Web Summit, one of the world’s largest tech conferences, representing TechBBQ and Danish media.

Thanks to its size and profile, Web Summit attracts some of the biggest names in the technology sphere. I had the opportunity to interview some of these speakers, who kindly took time from their busy schedules to share insights from their lives and experiences.

In 2023, November 13-16, the conference had over 70,000 attendees from 153 countries.

"GRILLED by TechBBQ" aims to inspire and connect Nordic audiences with voices from the global tech scene.

Stella Assange, Lawyer and Human Rights Defender, on centre stage in the Altice arena to talk about "WikiLeaks, truth and injustice" with Andrew Fishman, an investigative journalist from The Intercept Brasil. Photo: Web Summit / PR

Exclusive interview with Stella Assange, Lawyer and Human Rights Defender:

»I'm in regular contact with Julian. We speak during the day several times. It's limited to ten minutes at a time because that's how prison phones function. I can see him once or twice a week. The reality is, however, that he's extremely isolated.«

Interview with Stella Assange:

Keyvan:
»A pleasure to talk to you, Stella. What brings you to Web Summit?«

Stella:
»It's my first Web Summit. I'm going to talk about "WikiLeaks, Truth and Injustice" as I want to raise awareness about Julian Assange's case wherever I can.«

Keyvan:
»You've just been to Oslo in the lead-up to the big tech event in Lisbon. Why is that?«

Stella:
»Well, on October 19, PEN Norway, an association that supports writers in prison, has awarded Julian Assange the Ossietzky Prize for 2023 in recognition of his critical journalism and his commitment to exposing the abuse of power and war crimes.«

Keyvan:
»Congratulations!«

Stella:
»Thank you. It's an important prize because it recognizes the freedom of speech, and both Carl von Ossietzky and Julian Assange have many similarities in how they thought, acted, and got prosecuted as well as imprisoned for publishing insights relevant to the public.«

Keyvan:
»I see!«

Stella:
»PEN Norway awarded him the prize, and I went to collect it. Both Julian and I are strong advocates for free speech, so it was great to be in Norway to receive their support. I think it's important that innovators and technologists doing pioneering work to keep evolving journalism and bring it to the greatest potential can do that without being compromised. WikiLeaks did more than that. WikiLeaks transformed journalism because of how academics, historians, and lawyers have used it to bring a richer understanding of our world.«

Keyvan:
»How can Web Summit support you get this message out?«

Stella:
»It's a global event. It's a massive get-together of people bringing the critical issues of the moment to the forefront in our global society. And Julian's case is very critical. Not only because of the length of time that he's been imprisoned. Every day that passes is a day where he is at greater risk.«

Stella Assange on the Q&A Stage at Web Summit in Pavilion 5, talking about freedom of speech, Julian Assange's imprisonment, and the PEN Norway award she collected on his behalf in Oslo on October 19 in the lead-up to her trip to Lisbon. Photo: Web Summit / PR

Keyvan:
»I follow, but can you please elaborate?«

Stella:
»Yes, Julian is risking extradition to the United States, where he faces 175 years in prison. He's being put on trial for acts of journalism, for receiving information and possessing it, and communicating it to the public. He's a non-U.S. citizen who was not even in the United States. So, we're talking about the abuse of international cooperation to hound and imprison a person. This is obviously something that any country can use as a blueprint to silence their critics or rivals, whatever their motivations. It erodes sovereignty. It also erodes freedom of speech and freedom of the press.«

Because if one country can restrict the ability of a journalist in another country to publish and speak, then there is no real press freedom. And if Julian is in prison, we can't meaningfully talk about press freedom in the West.«

Keyvan:
»Do you feel that the case gets the support it needs?«

Stella:
»The political support is very strong and grows stronger by the day. From Australia, where Julian is from, the vast majority of Australians are calling for Julian to be released, for him to come home, and so on. There is bipartisan support from the major parties. The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, repeatedly urges the US government to end the pursuit of Julian. And the opposition agrees, so in Australia, there's no question this is an appalling injustice.«

Keyvan:
»Would you say that the situation is moving in the right direction?«

Stella:
»Yes, very much so. In the United States, where Julian's case is also stirring extreme controversy, recently, there was a letter to Biden, which was also bipartisan. I think there were 16 signatories. Six months ago, there was another letter that had seven signatories. So, now it's more than almost doubled. It's not just the progressives on the right side of the fringe, but Jim McGovern, the House Rules Committee ranking member, who is a very middle-of-the-road Democrat, led the letter.«

Keyvan:
»What is that a symbol of?«

Stella:
»It's a sign of the situation changing politically. Obviously, for many countries worldwide, the vast majority of countries, Julian's case is seen as a massive stain on Western liberal democracies, who present themselves as respecting press freedom, and and not imprisoning dissidents, but at the same time have kept Julian imprisoned without conviction.«

Stella Assange, Lawyer and Human Rights Defender on Centre Stage during day three of Web Summit 2023 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal. Photo: Web Summit / PR
Stella Assange flew in from Oslo to Lisbon after receiving an award on Julian Assange's behalf to sit in front of a stadium packed with tech-enthusiasts, founders, innovators, media, leaders, and decision makers from all over the world. Photo: Web Summit / PR

Keyvan:
»How is Julian doing? Have you spoken to him lately?«

Stella:
»I'm in regular contact with Julian. We speak during the day several times. It's limited to ten minutes at a time because that's how prison phones function. I can see him once or twice a week. The reality is, however, that he's extremely isolated. That's the purpose of putting him in prison, you know! Cutting him off from the world is the whole point, so he has no internet and is silenced.«

Keyvan:
»Can you elaborate?«

Stella:
»That is the traditional way of treating a politically motivated imprisonment, to remove a person from their public place in society because, obviously, Julian has a very influential voice. For freedom of speech, press freedom, and all sorts of causes of justice. The reality is that a lot of people who do not want to be held to account find it very convenient that he is silenced and cut off from the world.«

Keyvan:
»How is his mental health? And how does he keep his hopes and morale up high?«

Stella:
»Well, obviously, it's a struggle for anyone to be in that environment for years without any sense of when it all will end. That's a difficult position to be in. He reads a lot and disputes with the prison about the books he's allowed to have in the cell. They want him to remove books, and he doesn't want to part with them. He's given up his bed because it's controlled to be able to keep his books because of restrictions concerning the volume of space taken up by books in his cell. So, he is sleeping on a yoga mat. He has no internet access but a radio and was recently given a typewriter. But these are small things. Obviously, what he needs is to come home and be with his family. He sees our children, a five-year-old and a six-and-a-half-year-old. He sees them once a week, which is important. But it's barbaric, really.«

Web Summit 2023

Stella Assange was on centre stage to talk about "WikiLeaks, truth, and injustice"

About Stella Assange:

Stella Assange is a Lawyer and Human Rights Defender. She was born into an activist family background in South Africa that was fighting injustice. Her parents were working in the development fields in Botswana and Lesotho and were involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. At only 2,5 years old, a dramatic event shaped her outlook on justice when a death squad crossing the border assassinated her parent's close friend in 1985. She joined Julia Assange's legal team in 2011. She holds a degree in law and politics from SOAS University of London and a Master of Science in refugee law from Oxford. She joined Assange's legal team in 2011 and is Julian Assange's wife. Together, they have sons Gabriel and Max.

About Julian Assange:

Julian Paul Assange is an Australian editor, publisher, activist, technologist, coder, writer, and cryptographer who founded WikiLeaks, a non-profit searchable database, in 2006. He came to wide international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. She disclosed nearly 750,000 classified or unclassified but sensitive military footage of a US airstrike in Baghdad, US military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and more than 250,000 US State Department diplomatic cables written by 271 American embassies and consulates in 180 countries that became known as "Cablegate".

About the Ossietzky Prize:

The Ossietzky Award (Norwegian: Ossietzkyprisen) is a prize awarded by the Norwegian chapter of P.E.N. for extraordinary contributions to freedom of speech. The prize is named after writer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Carl von Ossietzky, a German journalist and pacifist. Carl von Ossietzky won the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing the clandestine German rearmament. In 2016, Edward Snowden, who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013, was awarded the same prize "For outstanding achievements within the field of freedom of expression".

Belmarsh prison:

Julian Assange has been held in prison since 2019 in Belmarsh, which is a men's only prison with a capacity of 900 prisoners in Thamesmead, in the southeastern part of London, England. The prison is used in high-profile cases, particularly those concerning national security. Within the prison grounds is the High-Security Unit, which consists of 48 single cells. Julian Assange and Stella Assange got married in March 2022 at Belmarsh prison.

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