Candles for Assange events in Wellington and Auckland tomorrow kick off global actions all around the world in support of Julian Assange, who faces an US extradition indictment in UK Court.

Last year on Julian Assange’s 47th Birthday, #FreeAssangeNZ arranged a candle display on NZ Parliament lawn, spawning a viral campaign image. Deciding to do the same display again this year, only this time at the US Embassy in Wellington, we invited other cities around the world to join us for hash-tag “Candles4Assange” and hold a local vigil.

3 July 2019 will see a whopping 59 other cities holding birthday vigils around the world.

3 July is Julian's 48th birthday, he's spent his last seven birthdays in arbitrary detention.

4 July is the US's 243 anniversary of its Declaration of Independence from imperial power.

Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture says persecution of Assange must stop! Melzer outlined the facts of Assange's innocence in respect to all charges and allegations in an article published on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Torture Victims, 26 June 2019, (read the article to comprehend the lie promoted by interests who oppose the public good and informed democracy) extracted crystal ;

“In the end it finally dawned on me that I had been blinded by propaganda, and that Assange had been systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed. Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide. And thus, a legal precedent is being set, through the backdoor of our own complacency, which in the future can and will be applied just as well to disclosures by The Guardian, the New York Times and ABC News.”

Free Assange NZ calls freedom-loving people of Wellington to attend a candle vigil to honour Julian Assange on the occasion of his birthday. The vigil commences at 5:00pm at the US Embassy 29 Fitzherbert Terrace, Thorndon tomorrow.

Wellington and Auckland Candles for Assange events will be followed by events in a multitude of cities around the planet. Supporters at these events know that Assange is a modern day Robin Hood of the digital age, protecting us from the prosaic evil Sherif of Nottingham and unpopular prince in this case the US centred imperial power and its war on the world.

Free Assange NZ supports the principle of press freedom, especially for a media who's mission is “to hold power to account.”

Journalism, particularly honest investigative journalism that reports on the big issues is under attack in Western nations including our close neighbour Australia whose citizen is Wikileaks editor Julian Assange.

Free Assange NZ challenges New Zealand news media and journalism professionals to condemn the UK and US Government's conspiracy to deny freedom to Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange. NZ's media have been missing in action on this matter for far too long.

Assange is the recipient of many awards for journalism. The Wikileaks editor has been granted the 2019 Danny Schechter Global Vision Award (DANNY) for Journalism & Activism, extract;

The DANNY Award announcement warns, ”The Assange case represents a threat not only to freedom of expression but also to the heart of American democracy itself.”

Assange was arrested on 11 April 2019 in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after Ecuador unlawfully revoked his asylum and invited British police into the Embassy. On 23 May, a superseding indictment charged Assange with 17 counts under the Espionage Act for publishing US war and diplomatic secrets in 2010 — the first such charges for a publisher.

Where powerful nations wage war (usually on spurious grounds – Iraq weapons of mass destruction), people and resources are wasted, genuine security and wellbeing will evade humanity, which will condemn people to a hostile and apocalyptic future.

Truth is the antidote to propaganda and lies.

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