[D66] Docu: Julian Assange and the dark secrets of war

[René Oudeweg]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYIyq6tpQ-4

Julian Assange and the dark secrets of war | DW Documentary
DW Documentary

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396.239 weergaven  5 jul 2024  #dwdocumentary #Assange #documentary
On June 25, 2024, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was able to walk free 
following a deal with the US government. Does this surprising end to the 
publisher’s many years of criminal prosecution and imprisonment signal a 
positive outcome for press freedom?

Turkish journalist Can Dündar, who was also imprisoned on similar 
charges in Turkey and now lives in exile in Germany, and co-director 
Sarah Mabrouk followed the Assange case for the last six months before 
his release. Dündar sees it as the most important trial for press 
freedom in this century. In this documentary, Dündar decides not to 
focus on the controversial figure of Assange, but instead on his most 
controversial publication: “Collateral Murder”, a video which shows 
possible war crimes committed by US soldiers in 2007 in an attack in 
Baghdad during the Iraq war. The recording shows journalists and Iraqi 
civilians being gunned down by US soldiers in an Apache helicopter.

Dündar’s investigations take him from Iceland to the US and Iraq, as he 
follows the story of the infamous video. He tracks down one of the only 
two Iraqi survivors of the attack – a boy who was 10 years old at the 
time – and a US soldier who was directly involved in the incident. 
Dündar invited the two to meet for the first time 17 years later. The 
encounter makes the disturbing long-term consequences of war and the 
lasting pain on both sides vividly apparent.

Following the publication of the video, the US military conducted an 
internal investigation, after which none of the soldiers were brought to 
trial. For Julian Assange, however, it was a different story: It was the 
first time in American history that publishing information the 
government considered secret was successfully treated as a crime.

Dündar was able to accompany Julian Assange’s wife, Stella, and their 
two children on one of their last visits to Belmarsh maximum security 
prison and to the hearings at Britain's High Court. Although Assange is 
now free, Dündar asks what the ruling means for journalism. What will 
happen if journalists around the world stop reporting on war crimes, 
corruption or government wrongdoing for fear of conviction under an 
espionage law? The long-term implications of the Assange case are only 
just beginning to emerge. The film tells a gripping and highly topical 
story about the fight for truth.

#documentary #dwdocumentary #Assange #pressfreedom
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