Dear Prime Minister,
I have read and watched reports of your comments today regarding Mr Assange and what you imply are illegal acts by him and / or his organisation. Even if it was your role to publicly assert criminality on the part of an Australian citizen who has been charged with no offence in relation to publishing the content of cables received by Wikileaks (which is clearly not your role) you seemed unable today to cite any Australian Law that may have been broken.
Given that The Guardian, The New York Times, Der Spiegel, El Pais and Le Monde (to name but five reputable publishers overseas) have published exactly the same material as Wikileaks would you say that their actions are illegal? And given that here in Australia The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and the ABC have quoted directly from the leaked material would you wish to claim that those news outlets have acted illegally too?
I am sorry to write Prime Minister that your public assertions today are repugnant to me. I believe you have abrogated your responsibility to defend the rightful separation of the Executive from the justice system. Your quite unjustifiable conflation of claims of sexual assault (Mr Assange has never even been charged with any offence in Sweden far less convicted) with the leaking of cables re-printed in the national newspapers of several countries with a free press was reprehensible, deceitful and outrageous.
I respectfully request that you change your stance on these matters and would refer you to the letter published today and signed by 200 prominent Australians and others. I support its approach and urge you strongly to adopt it.
Yours sincerely,
Find wikileaks here and here and here
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