 Julian Assange is an inspiration to the world and a role model for others to follow. But let's be clear, he's been betrayed by this country, betrayed by the politicians on both sides of the House of Commons chamber, betrayed by the journalists who work for the corporate media and betrayed by a judicial system that serves the interests of war criminals and corporate crooks instead of the interests of justice. Julian's treatment by the British establishment is nothing short of an international outrage. It's brought shame on our country. And of course, it's being done, let's remember, it's being done in our name because we're supposed to live in a democracy, aren't we? So it shames all of us too. But I object and I reject the system that's incarcerated a journalist for telling the truth. For exposing, for exposing sickening war crimes and corporate corruption, how dare Dominic Raab accuse China of gross and egregious human rights abuses when that's precisely what his government's doing to Julian Assange. The hypocrisy is absolutely breathtaking. And I'm sick to death of listening to ministers castigating countries like Russia, China and Iran when they're either unwilling or incapable of getting their own house in order here in Britain. And what about the leader of the official opposition? Sir Keir Stammer. As a knight of the realm, he's a pillar of the establishment. And when he was the director of public prosecutions, he did his level best to get Julian extradited to Sweden on trumped up charges. And I've got to say, I'm very sad that even Jeremy Corbyn said he didn't object to the attempted extradition to Sweden. And the right-wing Labour MP, Stella Creasy, positively reveled in the feeding frenzy. She even persuaded more than 70 parliamentarians to sign a letter to the Home Secretary in April 2019. 56 of these characters were Labour MPs and peers. And nine others had recently resigned the Labour whip to join the ill fate of Change UK, all the wise known as the Funny Tinge Party. Creasy was insisting on Julian's extradition to Sweden. And her parliamentary missive to Sajid Javid urged him to, and I quote, do everything you can to champion action that will ensure that Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden. But look, all of these politicians, all of these parliamentarians knew that the extradition to Sweden was just a pretext. They knew the idea was to get Julian extradited to Sweden so that he could then be extradited to the US. Why was I the only MP pushing Julian's case? Where were the other MPs? Where were the MPs? Where were the MPs who claimed to champion free speech? Where were the MPs who bang on about a free press? And where were the socialist MPs who protest about corporate corruption and illegal wars? The unacceptable truth is, they were all keeping their heads down. And I've got to say, the silence was deafening. Now I'm obviously pleased that some MPs are at last speaking out. I just wish that senior figures like Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, and Richard Bergen had used their positions when they were shadow ministers to plead Julian's case. The number of MPs who are speaking out is still woefully inadequate. So Julian has clearly been betrayed by Britain's political class. But what about his fellow journalists? With a few notable exceptions, their role has been utterly contemptible. One of those notable exceptions is John McAvoy. He's an investigative journalist who writes for publications such as Declassified UK and The Canary. He recently highlighted the deathly silence of journalists who'd previously mocked Julian, but then said nothing about the shocking revelations and the really worst shocking revelations that the CIA were plotting to kidnap and assassinate him. Apparently, Mike Pompey wanted revenge after WikiLeaks published the Vault 7 files in 2017. This, as I'm sure you're aware, was the largest leak in CIA history. And it revealed how UK agencies had held workshops with the CIA to find ways to hack into the household devices of every citizen in the United Kingdom. Why didn't the Fourth Estate call out this clear abuse of power? And why hasn't there been wall-to-wall media coverage of the CIA's covert plans to murder an award-winning journalist on British soil? It's an absolute disgrace and an outrage. You know, it's astonishing, isn't it? It's hardly been mentioned by the corporate media. And when Jen Muckivoy was looking into the coverage of Julian Assange earlier this month, he discovered that the BBC, which has one of the world's most-read news outlets, had only mentioned it once, and that was on the Somali language section of the BBC website. Of course, the story did appear a couple of times in The Guardian after it first broke, although to put that into perspective, the week after Alexei Navalny was reportedly poisoned by the Russian government, The Guardian published 16 separate stories on the issue, including video reports and opinion pieces. But stories that embarrass Western intelligence services are invariably played down or ignored altogether by the corporate media. Thankfully, though, independent outlets like Declassified UK, The Canary and The Grey Zone still have some journalistic integrity. The independent media are the only ones who are still prepared to pick up the cudgels on our behalf. And it was The Grey Zone that first provided the evidence of a CIA-linked proposal to kidnap and poison Julian in May 2020. And, of course, it was a similar tale that we've just heard when, in June this year, a key prosecution witness admitted that his entire testimony against Julian was false. Now, that was an explosive revelation. The corporate media's hardly given it any coverage at all. Anyone who doubted the corporate media's role as a mouthpiece for the establishment must have surely been disabused of those doubts by the way in which Julian's case has been reported. These corporate media hacks have brought their profession into total disrepute. They prove themselves to be nothing more than stenographers for the security services. Fearless journalists, they ain't. And here's just a few examples of the ridiculing reportage to which John McEvoy was referring. Now, it's almost four years since the Guardian's James Ball, a James Ball claimed, and I'm quoting him now, the only barrier to Julian Assange leaving Ecuador's embassy is pride, apparently. He also said that Julian was unlikely to face prosecution in the United States. And two months later, he said, Julian was being treated like a grounded teen. He should hold his hands up and leave the embassy. Another corporate media hack was also dismissive about Julian's plight. In a piece by Marina Hyde, she wrote in The Guardian in 2017 that the moral of the Assange story was wait long enough and bad stuff goes away. Hyde concluded her sneering story with a sarcastic comment that Captain WikiLeaks were get out of pretend jail eventually. And of course, the insults and ridiculing have been relentless. When Julian sought political asylum in 2012, Suzanne Moore said this, I bet Assange is stuffing himself full of flattened guinea pigs. He really is the most massive turd. And let me quote what she said in an article for the new statesman after Julian was arrested in 2019. She referred to him as a demented looking gnome being pulled out of the Ecuadorian embassy by the secret police of the deep state or the met as normal people call them. Incredibly, this horrendous hack won the Orwell Prize for Journalism the same year. I mean, it's hard to believe, isn't it? For what was described as her stubborn and brave commentary. But unlike Julian's work, there's nothing remotely brave about this cynical character's scribblings. Never mind the Orwell Prize for Journalism, she's more like a functionary from the Ministry of Truth. I just wonder what George Orwell would make of her if he was alive today. Remember, he said that speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act and Suzanne Moore is complicit in that universal deceit. As is Nick Cohen who in 2012 described Julian's supporters as the definition of paranoia. And he scoffed at the idea that the US could prosecute Julian and pejoratively called him the incontinent leaker. Cohen confidently proclaimed the First Amendment to the US Constitution is the finest defense of freedom of speech yet written. He also insisted that the American Civil Liberties Union thinks it would be unconstitutional for a judge to punish Assange. And he boldly declared that Britain has a notoriously lax extradition treaty with the United States. Every single one of Cohen's assertions was wrong. These corporate media hacks are an absolute disgrace and their employers are even worse. Not one of them published the observations by Nils Melzer on Julian's case. As we've heard, he's the UN Special Rapporteur on torture. In June 2019, he wrote a piece for the medium blog site. He admitted that he was skeptical when Julian first appeared to his office for protection. And let me quote a few passengers from the article that he wrote. He said, like most of the public, I'd been subconsciously poisoned by the relentless smear campaign which had been disseminated over the years. So it took a second knock on my door to get my reluctant attention. But once I looked into the facts of this case, what I found filled me with repulsion and disbelief. In the end, it finally dawned on me that I'd been blinded by propaganda and that Assange had been systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed. Once he'd 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. Of course, these observations were absolutely apocite. And it's the corporate media who've outrageously peddled the smears to dehumanize Julian. So that's the political class and the corporate media. What about the judicial system? Well, so far it's proved itself to be nothing short of a sick joke. Why on earth? Why on earth? It's Julian. Why on earth is Julian even having to fight an extradition application at all, let alone find himself incarcerated in a high-security prison for over two years? Article four of the extradition treaty between the UK and the USA is unambiguous. It clearly states that extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense. What could be more political than exposing war crimes, I ask you? Now, I've heard it claimed, I've heard it claimed that Parliament removed the bar on political offenses though, because the Extradition Act didn't specifically refer to them when the legislation was passed in 2003. But that doesn't stand any scrutiny at all. When the extradition bill was being debated in the House of Commons in December 2002, the issue of political offenses was actually raised by MPs. And the government's response was absolutely unequivocal. Responding to the debate on the extradition bill on the 9th of December that year, Bob Ainsworth explicitly stated that, the bill will ensure that no one can be extradited where the request is politically motivated. So I ask you, what the hell is going on? It's as plain as a pike staff, as far as I'm concerned, that the system that Julian's fighting is completely rotten to the core. As Edward Snowden is reputed to have said, when exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you're being ruled by criminals, which pretty much sums up Britain today. Look, Julian's been betrayed by the politicians. He's been abandoned by the corporate media. And so far, he's been unjustly treated by the judiciary. But we, the people, are Julian's last line of defence, and failure is not an option. With the world standing on the brink of climate catastrophe and the orchestra raising tensions with China, the need for fearless journalism has never been more important. So let's make one hell of a stink tomorrow to show the court that the British people say, free Julian Assange now!