Transcript of Julian Assange’s remarks in the ‘Can we trust the media?’ debate, Splendour in the Grass 2013
I feel for the other side, I really do.
Can we trust the media?
That’s the media that has called for me and my staff to be assassinated, droned, rendered and prosecuted? For espionage, for our publications, and our involvement in the Snowden case? Even this year ‘The Wall Street Journal’ and ‘The Washington Post’ have pushed this junk.
Noam Chomsky in ‘The Common Good’ wrote that “the smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum…”
We live in a media-ocracy. What’s politically possible is defined by the media environment.
In Australia, Murdoch’s News Corporation owns 60% of the mainstream media, one of the worst concentrations of media ownership in the world.
I started WikiLeaks because I understood this reality; the media frame defines the political possibility.
So, to bring about meaningful change, we have to enlarge the media frame. With WikiLeaks we have had significant successes in achieving this in some areas, though more needs to be done. We have to improve the access and quality of media of information to all Australians and to the world.
That’s why we’ve set up the WikiLeaks Party, and that’s why I’m running this year for election to the Australian Senate. And that’s why my colleague, human rights lawyer Kellie Tranter, here today, is also running for the Senate for the WikiLeaks Party. Continue Reading…