By Adam Garrie

February 07, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -    During Sunday’s Super Bowl, American and many international viewers witnessed the debut of an advertisement for the Washington Post. The Tom Hanks narrated advertisement spoke of the ideal values of honest journalism, before paying tribute to journalists who had lost their lives in recent years, including the Saudi born Jamal Khashoggi who had worked for the Washington Post prior to his murder inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

But when it comes to journalists being harmed inside the consulates or embassies of foreign nations, there is one incredibly brave journalist, publisher and peace activist who continues to rot inside the tiny chambers of Ecuador’s Embassy in London.

Julian Assange founded Wikileaks in late 2006 in order to expose the war criminality and other misdeeds of the powers that be. Among his most important and one of his first major breakthroughs was his publication of US Army whistle-blower Chelsea Manning’s leaks regarding the extent of the atrocities committed by US and allied forces in Iraq. Since then, Wikielaks has exposed the grim realities of the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, campaign fraud in the United States, intelligence agencies spying on innocent civilians and even fellow world leaders, geo-economic corruption and illegal political meddling by the US into the affairs of sovereign nations.

Crucially, not a single item that Julian Assange has published has ever been challenged on a factual basis. This is something that is unheard of in journalism and is a record of which Assange can be proud. And yet instead of being granted a Nobel Peace Prize for opening the eyes of the world to the criminality that occurs under the fog of war, instead of being granted major journalistic awards for his commitment to holding authority to account, Assange instead languishes in a small room with no access to the outdoors.