Julian Assange Wins European Journalism Award

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange has won the Award for Journalists, Whistleblowers & Defenders of the Right to Information in Europe.

Last week, Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy after Ecuador revoked his political asylum. As some journalists in major publications try and raise doubts about whether Assange is even a journalist, a new develop seems to cast doubt on whether that is even a topic for debate.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Assange has won yet another journalism award. This time, it is the “2019 GUE/NGL Award for Journalists, Whistleblowers & Defenders of the Right to Information”. From the report:

It is sponsored by European parliamentarians after being established in 2018 in honour of assassinated Maltese journalist Daphne Galizia.

The award is given to individuals “uncovering the truth and exposing it to the public” and to honour “individuals or groups who have been intimidated and/or persecuted for uncovering the truth and exposing it to the public”.

Nobel Peace prize laureate Mairead Maguire collected the award on the Australian’s behalf at an event in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor, said: “Through WikiLeaks Julian Assange’s vision of transparency has revolutionalised journalism.

“His imprisonment and threatened extradition to the United States has drawn a sharp line in the sand. You are either encouraging the crackdown on media freedom or you are standing with Julian Assange.”

The award is yet another journalism win for Wikileaks. Earlier, Wikileaks has been saying that the organization has won multiple journalism awards over the years. They then provided a picture featuring the list of awards and nominations over the years:

While some media outlets might be trying to cast doubt on Assange, there is, of course, this other side of the story to consider that might not make prime time news in North America. All this is starting to paint the picture of how, on the one side of the debate, there are major media outlets while on the other side, there is Wikileaks trying to fight back against the comments made by the media. Not exactly an image media outlets would like to have considering they are supposed to be professional and unbiased.

Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.