In response to recent attempts to censor Wikileaks and increasingly worrying calls for violence against Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, Pirate Party Australia has joined Pirate Parties worldwide in mirroring Wikileaks. Participating pirate parties include the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Romania, Russia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
This has been done to safeguard the freedom of the press and expression and to protest the lack of condemnation of the increasingly shrill calls for violence against Assange.
The Pirate Party Australia initiative can be found at:
Rodney Serkowski, Party President said “Instead of pursuing Wikileaks at the behest of the US Government, the Australian Government must move to protect Wikileaks and organisations like it, and the important function it provides within the democratic process. Without knowledge of the government’s operations, without knowledge of the realities, of the circumstances and the effects of policy, how can electors be expected to make an informed choice on election day?”
He continued “Wikileaks, and other leaking services, play an important role in the democratic process. We should instead be moving towards enacting safeguards for the freedoms of information and expression, ensuring the protection of journalistic sources within the law and encouraging and protecting legitimate disclosures.”
Other Pirate Parties are working on infrastructure that will be offered to other leaking services, in order to ensure that material is not deleted, or blocked.
Rodney Serkowski concluded “This is about more than Wikileaks, but leaking in general, and its legitimacy in a modern, open democracy. This is a fight for fundamental freedoms on the Internet. We will not accept governmental attempts to restrict access to free press and constrain freedom of speech.”