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‘Stand with Snowden’: New Campaign Launched to Protect Whistleblowers
From RT.com - June 12, 2014 – http://tinyurl.com/n6br9w6
A new campaign has been launched to provide protection to whistleblowers like Edward Snowden who face persecution from governments. Snowden, who appeared at the launch via video link, said it was now up to the people to protect the world’s truth-tellers.
The Courage organization had its launch in Berlin on Wednesday to mark the beginning of a campaign to support Edward Snowden as his temporary asylum in Russia comes to an end on July 31. Courage will also dedicate its activities to protecting whistleblowers as a whole from persecution.
The nascent organization’s advisory board is made up of whistleblowers who formally worked in government spy agencies, including the NSA, MI5 and the CIA.
“I think anyone that speaks truth to power whether it’s a whistleblower, publisher or journalist that those are heroic acts and they should be supported,” Sarah Harrison, acting director of Courage, told RT at the launch event.
Harrison traveled with Edward Snowden to Russia last year and spent four months in the country, helping to secure Snowden’s bid for temporary asylum.
Washington effectively stranded Snowden in Russia last summer, canceling his passport and filing an extradition order against him. The spy-turned-whistleblower has been charged under the espionage act for revealing top secret information on the National Security Agency’s (NSA) global spy programs.
Harrison argues Snowden’s courage to stand up to the US government over its spy programs should be celebrated and not condemned.
“There are many whistleblowers that are examples of how the US treats truth tellers. They basically persecute them,” she told RT.
Whistleblower advocate and security researcher Jacob Appelbaum, who also attended the launch, said the United States had fallen short in its protection of whistleblowers.
“Until we have the reforms in the US that allow people to come talk about real serious abuses of power we need organizations like Courage,” said Appelbaum.
‘Enough is enough’
During the launch event both Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared via video link to give statements on government surveillance.
Assange praised the founders of Courage for their work and said it was strange that WikiLeaks with all “its difficulties” was the only organization to come to Edward Snowden’s rescue in Hong Kong.
Snowden said the creation of organizations like Courage was a turning point in the battle against mass surveillance.
“Enough is enough,” said the whistleblower. “If the government won’t protect whistleblowers… we will protect them as a global society.”
#Standwithsnowden
To drum up support for Snowden’s cause a year after he sought refuge in Russia, Courage’s organizers have asked their followers to upload photos to social media under the hashtag #Standwithsnowden.
The social media campaign has already drawn significant support, with Intercept journalist Glen Greenwald posting a video message getting behind Snowden as well as many other privacy activists.
Glenn Greenwald, journalist at The Intercept and the reporter who first broke the NSA surveillance story explains why journalists rely on whistleblowers.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Courage – LAUNCH PRESS RELEASE – Monday 9th June 2014
Courage – the organisation running Snowden’s defence fund – launches in Berlin this Wednesday, 11th June
- speakers include Wolfgang Kaleck, Edward Snowden’s German lawyer; Sarah Harrison, Acting Director of Courage; WikiLeaks Publisher Julian Assange
- Edward Snowden – Courage’s first beneficiary – will send a message to the event
- a new campaign to show the breadth of international support for Edward Snowden will be announced on the night
Courage, a new international organisation dedicated to providing support to truthtellers, holds its official launch event in Berlin on the evening of Wednesday, 11th June. Courage runs Edward Snowden’s official defence fund. Courage also advocates for the protection of journalists’ sources and the public’s right to receive their information as guaranteed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Wednesday’s event will also mark the beginning of a new campaign for Edward Snowden as his temporary asylum in Russia approaches its end. Edward Snowden’s German lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck will explain his client’s current legal situation. Sarah Harrison, Acting Director of Courage, who facilitated Edward Snowden’s exit from Hong Kong and spent four months in Russia, including 40 days in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport securing Snowden’s freedom in exile, will underline the importance of ongoing public pressure.
Courage launches with an advisory board that includes former intelligence whistleblowers Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers), Thomas Drake (NSA), Ray McGovern (CIA) and Annie Machon (MI5), along with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow and professor of law and legal history at Columbia University Eben Moglen. For further details on Courage advisory board members, see http://couragefound.org/advisory-board/
Gavin MacFadyen, a Courage Trustee and Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, says:
The Trustees started Courage because it is imperative for free speech and an open independent press to support whistleblowers, particularly those who risk their lives and freedom to bring critical information to the public. At the time Courage started there were no international organisations providing the support Edward Snowden needed to remain free and none organising support for whistleblowers to come. Knowing the central role whistleblowers have played in the major ground-breaking disclosures of our time, it is clear that without freedom and protection for truthtellers, there is no freedom or protection for journalists. And none for the public. Courage has never been more needed and essential to a free press.
The other two Trustees of Courage are Julian Assange, Publisher of WikiLeaks and Barbora Bukovská, Senior Director for Law and Policy at Article 19.
The organisation’s launch comes a year after Edward Snowden revealed himself as the source of NSA revelations on mass surveillance and takes place in one of the countries where the reaction has been most significant. In the past week, the German federal prosecutor has announced the re-opening of a formal investigation into allegations that the German Chancellor’s mobile phone was monitored and a parliamentary inquiry into mass surveillance is ongoing.
Sarah Harrison says:
Snowden performed a heroic act and should be supported. Courage will show the world that the public stands with Snowden and they want their governments to help protect him. For the last year people associated with Courage have worked to assist and defend Snowden against injustice. We found him safety and asylum in Russia and we raised funds to pay for his lawyers in the US, Iceland and more widely. But we are just starting – Courage is not here just for Snowden but for future Snowdens.
Additional special guests will be announced on the night. Their comments, as well as those of the others speaking, will be made available on Courage’s website and Twitter feed.
Courage originally began in August 2013 as The Journalistic Source Protection Defence Fund and has run Edward Snowden’s defence fund since that time. Courage’s official Edward Snowden support site, previously located at http://freesnowden.is will move to http://edwardsnowden.com to coincide with the launch. The related Twitter account will also move to @CourageSnowden from @free_snowden.
Sign the petition to “The World’s Leaders: Tell Us the Truth in 2014″ today at: https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/the-world-s-leaders-tell-us-the-truth-in-2014. – and keep sharing it everywhere! Facebook, Google+,Twitter, email, blogs etc.
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