Beat the Blockade on WikiLeaks on April 5

Beattheblockade.org released the statement below on March 16.

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Today marks the launch of “Beat the Blockade” — a day of action on April 5 to protest the extrajudicial financial blockade of WikiLeaks and raise vital funds for its work to continue.

While Julian Assange continues to fight legal battles under the serious threat of extradition to the United States to face secretly drawn up espionage charges, WikiLeaks continues to analyse and publish information that reveals truths about the world, its power relationships and injustices, most recently the Stratfor release, the “Global Intelligence Files”.

And yet it struggles to continue under an extended ban on processing payments to it by US corporate giants Visa, MasterCard, Western Union, PayPal and Bank of America.

Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam today called on the Australian government to act: “It's time our government pushed back on companies including Visa, Mastercard and Paypal, and demanded to know why they are continuing the crippling financial blockade of WikiLeaks.

“If it turns out the blockade is legal under Australian trade practices law, then that’s a problem the Australian Parliament should fix. In the meantime, it’s up to each of us to beat the blockade in our own way.”

By logging on to beattheblockade.org on April 5 and donating at least $5 by one of the easy payment methods, people around the world can send a message to the companies engaged in the blockade — and the governments that regulate them — that censorship of a free press publisher and denying consumers their rights will not be tolerated.

Since December 7, 2010 an arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade has been imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union on WikiLeaks.

Video: Wikileaks Needs You! - TheWikiLeaksChannel.

The attack has destroyed 95% of WikiLeaks’ revenue. The blockade came into force within 10 days of the launch of Cablegate as part of a concerted US-based, political attack on a free press publishing organisation that has breached no law in any country, and that won the 2011 Australian Walkley Award for outstanding contribution to journalism.

Veteran broadcaster and Australia’s first female prime time news anchorperson Mary Kostakidis said: “The public are the real targets of this financial blockade because they are the stakeholders in this publisher — it is their right to know that it is being revoked because the protection of anonymity WikiLeaks has offered to whistleblowers is too powerful a tool.

"Time for a show of people power: protest this illegitimate censorship with one voice on 5 April.”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has openly criticised the financial blockade against WikiLeaks, as have the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression.

In announcing “Beat the Blockade”, Cassie Findlay of the Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition said: “It is completely unacceptable that any of us who have one of these credit cards in our pocket are part of a campaign to destroy free speech. We hope that people everywhere will show these companies that they won’t win by donating five bucks or more to WikiLeaks on April 5.”

For more details visit beattheblockade.org or contact Cassie on 0412 355 899, cassie@beattheblockade.org or Matt on 0409 463 786, matt@beattheblockade.org]

Video: What Does it Cost to Change the World?Not Yet Rated - WikiLeaks.