Today’s attacks on RT and Wikileaks are attacks on free speech

When Hillary Clinton first said that Wikileaks and Russia were intertwined, the statement was a lie and a laughable one at that. Sadly the events of the last few hours have made her statement true but for very odd, sinister and mysterious reasons.

This morning after three highly cryptic Tweets, Wikileaks revealed that Julian Assange’s highly sensitive internet connection had been cut off by a ‘state party’. Hours later, all UK bank accounts associated with RT were suddenly shut down, assets were frozen. No explanation was offered and no enquiry was answered.

The timing is beyond suspicious. The implications are frightening. Prior to today the only thing linking RT with Wikileaks is that both have begged people to ‘question more’.  It is RT’s motto and it is a de facto reality at Wikileaks. Both have come under attack.

Let me make clear, the fact is that RT is not a ‘tool of the Russian government’; it is merely a semi-public broadcaster delivering world news from a Russian perspective. There is CCTV in China, France 24, the BBC and many others which do the same.

But it seems RT are being lumped in with a wider misinformation campaign against Russia. This is truly despicable.

Russia and Syria’s brave, just and patriotic war against Islamic terrorism has led to the unthinkable, it has led to a war on free speech.

I write the following on behalf of no other person nor organisation. I write it on my own behalf and I thank The Duran for giving me a platform to say this.

After today’s events, people throughout the world must consider their own views on justice, morality and where their conscience lies.

Free speech is one of the most sacred rights in the world. It is what defines us as humans, it is what has built civilisation.

The world’s great libraries, the world’s great archives of music, the world’s great art galleries, the world’s great archives of film and video, exist only because people have dared to speak freely, sometimes against great odds.

At certain moments in history and in certain places, the ability to speak freely and contribute to the immortal human saga is curtailed or crushed.

This cannot be allowed to happen. Without solidarity there is nothing, without passion there will be defeat, without strength there will be an explosion of banditry. People must ask for what it is they are living and what they are willing to devote their lives to. If you are men and women of faith, I suggest you begin praying to God in search of the answer.

I have made my choice. My life is one devoted to the pursuit of justice and I am willing to live and give my life in this cause. Thucydides said: “Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger”. The hysteria in the west is indeed an explosion of anger but the consequences could be grave and protracted.

All of those who stand for justice must unite to protect the freedom to speak against an onslaught from the defining clang of infernal silence. I shall end with a quote from Sir Winston Churchill, a man whose government was far more prepared to defend free speech than those who govern today.

“All the greatest things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: Freedom; Justice; Honour; Duty; Mercy; Hope”.