Bonum Certa Men Certa

New DW Documentary on Julian Assange (After Release From Prison)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 06, 2024

By Turkish journalist Can Dündar

Julian Assange and the dark secrets of war | DW Documentary

On June 25, 2024, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was able to walk free following a deal with the US government. Does this surprising end to the publisher’s many years of criminal prosecution and imprisonment signal a positive outcome for press freedom?

Turkish journalist Can Dündar, who was also imprisoned on similar charges in Turkey and now lives in exile in Germany, followed the Assange case for the last six months before his release. Dündar sees it as the most important trial for press freedom in this century. In this documentary, Dündar decides not to focus on the controversial figure of Assange, but instead on his most controversial publication: “Collateral Murder”, a video which shows possible war crimes committed by US soldiers in 2007 in an attack in Baghdad during the Iraq war. The recording shows journalists and Iraqi civilians being gunned down by US soldiers in an Apache helicopter.

Dündar’s investigations take him from Iceland to the US and Iraq, as he follows the story of the infamous video. He tracks down one of the only two Iraqi survivors of the attack – a boy who was 10 years old at the time – and a US soldier who was directly involved in the incident. Dündar invited the two to meet for the first time 17 years later. The encounter makes the disturbing long-term consequences of war and the lasting pain on both sides vividly apparent.

Following the publication of the video, the US military conducted an internal investigation, after which none of the soldiers were brought to trial. For Julian Assange, however, it was a different story: It was the first time in American history that publishing information the government considered secret was successfully treated as a crime.

Dündar was able to accompany Julian Assange’s wife, Stella, and their two children on one of their last visits to Belmarsh maximum security prison and to the hearings at Britain's High Court. Although Assange is now free, Dündar asks what the ruling means for journalism. What will happen if journalists around the world stop reporting on war crimes, corruption or government wrongdoing for fear of conviction under an espionage law? The long-term implications of the Assange case are only just beginning to emerge. The film tells a gripping and highly topical story about the fight for truth.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Writing and Coding Isn't Always Enough
Last year we had to assume a role we didn't have before: litigants
Autumn Has Come
Autumn should be exciting in all sorts of ways; it'll also mark our anniversary
IBM Has Taken Control of GNOME
Don't expect a successor to be found any time soon
 
Links 01/09/2025: "Attacks on Science" and China's "Soft Power" Grows
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2025: Fresh Backlash Against Slop and "Norway’s Electricity Crisis is About to Hit Britain"
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2025: Catching Up (Mostly via Deutsche Welle), "Windows TCO" Effect in UK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/09/2025: Linguistic Barriers and "Web 1.0 Hosting"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 31, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 31, 2025
The UEFI 9/11 - Part IV - External Interference
They all seem to be playing a role in crushing Software Freedom and self-determination for users
Links 31/08/2025: Baggage Claim Scams, an Insurrectionist’s War on Culture, and a Sudden Robotics Hype
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/08/2025: Reviewing Netsurf and Slightly Less Historic Ada Design
Links for the day
Links 31/08/2025: Google Gmail Data Breach and LF Puff Pieces for Pay
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 30, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 30, 2025
This is What Google News Has Become
Moments ago
The Slopfarm WebProNews Has Turned Google News Into a Laughing Stock Full of Plagiarism by Slop
If Google News dies of neglect, that's one thing. It's starting to seem like active neglect by Google is a form of participation.
Do What is Moral, as What's Legal Isn't Always Moral
Do what's objectively moral, no matter the costs and the risks
Slopwatch: Google News Assisting Plagiarism and Anti-Linux FUD, Serial Slopper Rips Off Linux-Centric Journalists
This makes the Web a much worse place and lessens the incentive to do journalism
Links 30/08/2025: NVIDIA Fakes Results to Hide a Bubble Already in Implosion Phase, Data Breaches Galore, Important Win for Workers' Union in Canada
Links for the day
Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
In Kazakhstan, Yandex Estimated to be 20 Times Bigger Than Microsoft
Bing is measured as down this month
Shutterstock Not Enough? The Register MS Uses Slop Images in Articles (Seemingly More and More Over Time)
Cost-saving trajectory amid office shutdown?
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Games, PostmarketOS, and Slop
Links for the day
Links 30/08/2025: Imgur Uproar and Many Ukraine Updates (Mediazona Reports Over 200,000 Russians Died for Putin)
Links for the day
How Not to Build Software
code forges that need a Web browser perhaps fill some 'niche' demand
GAFAM and "MATA"
The use of dark humour there hopefully helps illuminate what a lot of "modern" technology became like and how it interacts with human civilisation (to what ends and whose gain)
Birds Are Not "Pests and Vermin", Privacy is Not a Crime, and GNU/Linux is Not 'Hacking Platform'
I could not help but think of Free software analogies
The Sites Should Be Very Fast Again
That issue is now resolved
Flying in 2025
worse than ever before
Activists, Including Technical Activists, Need Not Pursue Affirmation
Techrights doesn't play or participate in a "popularity contest"
The UEFI 9/11 - Part III - Chaos is Scheduled to Happen Second Thursday of September (No Matter What the Microsofters Tell You)
The clock is ticking
Downplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
Government Sites Should Run Free Software
Not proprietary bloatware with buzzwords
LLM Slopfarms Take No Breaks
When people run sites by bots they don't need to worry about "breaks"
GNOME Having a Meltdown Again
Thanks and farewell to Steven Deobald
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Low Tech and Hunchbin 1.0.6
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 29, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 29, 2025