You would think the governments of the world had forgotten the one thing they always pretend to stand for – freedom of the press. Wikileaks is nothing more than a news organisation, it’s just that they actually work on getting scoops instead of just attending pre arranged press releases.

Leaving aside Julian Assange’s trial, (of which if found guilt he should face full force of law) tell me what he has done, that no other news agency would not have done given the same information? In fact look at every single news agency in the world, releasing and printing every single detail, every single day from the cables released by Wikileaks.

This is a disgusting assault on freedom of speech and freedom of the press and all persecutors should hang their heads in shame for they not only show their true colors in this assault but also show that they do not care about our freedoms when it cuts deep with them individually and collectively.

So it was pleasing to see former Australian Prime Ministers John Howard and Kevin Rudd both come out and defend Assange and the freedom of press. John Howard perhaps put it best.

Any journalist will publish confidential information if he or she gets hold of it, subject only to compelling national security interests. The issue is whether any of this material and the publication of it will endanger people’s lives or endanger individual countries. The bad people in this little exercise are the people who gave the information to him, because they’re the people who breached the trust. They deserve to be chased and prosecuted.

I could not have put it any better myself.