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A Global Glimpse at the Diplomatic Standoff Over Julian Assange (Sweden, Ecuador, Britain and Australia News Providers)


Aug 20, 2012 by

With Washington sticking to its story that it isn’t interested in Assange ‘at this time’, and the Australians remaining somewhat coy about why they haven’t done more to protect his constitutional rights as an Australian, the governments of Britain, Ecuador and Sweden are expressing a good deal of exasperation about the case – for differing reasons.

From Ecuador, in an editorial headlined Ecuador’s Embassy – and All Embassies – are Off Limits to British Police, the Ecuador newspaper Hoy not only rips British officials for suggesting that Ecuador’s Embassy could be entered by British police, it expresses the hope that the Rafeal Correa Administration will honor “the human rights and freedom of speech” that it is is invoking with respect to asylum matters, and “will without restriction just as assiduously respect them in this country.”

For Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter, in an editorial headlined Sweden’s Image Smeared by Missteps and Accusations of Assange Defenders, the newspaper ridicules the popular global narrative that downplays the sex charges against him as a ploy to hand him over to an execution-happy America as just as absurd as the notion that Rafael Correa wants to defend free speech and a free press.

From Britain and Australia, there is plenty of debate about the case – particularly over the past 24 hours in regard to the wisdom of threats by British authorities to storm the Ecuador Embassy. We have plugged all the reaction from Britain and Australia into a Bitly Bundle, and will continue to add to it as events warrant.

READ MORE AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.

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1 Comment

  1. hyperflow
    August 20, 2012 | 9:53 am

    Game of Thrones, 2012 edition.

    This is what happens when you embarrass empires.
    All these countries are playing chess, trying to use the situation to make a point.
    The chess match is so far removed from legal reality it could hardly be called law at all.

    This is entirely about power and image.
    Assange is one horse in the race.

    To win, he will have to prove clever in the power/image game.
    So far he has been doing well. If people take their eye off this for one minute, he is a dead man walking.

    And I think that is the strategy by the US/UK/…../empires
    Wait out the 15 minutes of attention.
    Make the arrest, then kill him.

    Hopefully we will have better attention spans and keep the man alive.

    TL;DR: Law irrelevant. Power and image at stake. Game of thrones. Stay tuned.