Dateline speaks to Assange lawyer

Interesting episode of Dateline on SBS this week, especially for those following the Julian Assange case.

As WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spends another week living in limbo behind the walls of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa, has been criticised for doing in his country exactly what Assange is fighting against.

“Human Rights Watch, Reporters without Borders, have said that freedom of speech in Ecuador is deteriorating faster than any other country in Latin America,” Cesar Ricaurtre, director of local media watchdog organisation Fundamedios, tells Dateline in a special report on what awaits Assange if he ever makes it to the country that has granted him political asylum.

“I am sure that if Mr Assange was an Ecuadorian or had been living in Ecuador, by now he would be in prison serving time or doing the same thing, hiding in an embassy, because he would be persecuted by the government,” Ricautre continues.

A charismatic and popular president, Correa basks in public support but is intensely sensitive to criticism, especially from the media. While he champions Assange’s right to free speech, he is accused of hypocrisy for granting asylum to Assange while conducting a crusade against his country’s own media, launching lawsuits and unleashing regular verbal attacks on journalists.

Meanwhile in Sweden, Assange’s Australian legal advisor Jennifer Robinson has criticised the Australian Government for not doing enough to help an Australian in trouble abroad.

“It has been disappointing for many people that the Australian Government has not been willing to go into bat for its citizen and that this is for the first time in history, so far as I know, that an Australian has had to seek refuge from a foreign state,” Robinson says in an interview with Dateline.

The 31 year old human rights lawyer claims that there is a criminal investigation into Assange underway in the United States of ‘unprecedented size and scale’, and claims by the Australian Government that they are unaware of the US preparing a case against Assange are simply untrue.

“Bob Carr in particular, and the Australian Government more generally, has been wilfully blind to what has been happening in the US and what is an ongoing criminal investigation. The suggestion that the US has no interest in prosecuting Julian Assange runs completely counter to all of the objective facts that we know about of what’s happening in the US,” Robinson tells Dateline.

Assange has been holed up inside Ecuador’s embassy in London after losing his legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden where he will face questioning over allegations of sexual misconduct. Despite assurances from Sweden, he fears he will ultimately be sent to the United States where he could face the death penalty for his role in publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic and military cables.

International current affairs show hosted by Mark Davis.

Tuesday11 Sept 9.30pm SBS ONE.