The Leaks Speak

"If justice is not always the outcome, at least it is not dead yet."
Julian Assange


It is extraordinary how many books in the world have been banned and even stranger for the reasons behind the barring. Alice in Wonderland was banned in China in 1931 by the governor of Hunan Province on the grounds that "animals should not use human language" and that it "was disastrous to put animals and human beings on the same level."

Well yes, I can understand that logic actually, what with it being human beings committing some of the most abominable acts known to man. Sorry, make that livestock. Hmm, and that would bring us back to books and how it was the Third Reich who did not just commit the unforgivable Holocaust, but burned 25,000 volumes of "un-German" books in 1933 which did not tow the line to Nazi beliefs.


The Spy Catcher, written by Peter Wright with Paul Greengrass, after Wright spent 20 years service with MI5, is part memoir and part expose of what he considered the institutional failings of Britain's security services. The book went on to become an international best-seller but was banned in the UK when the British government waged a lengthy, expensive and ultimately unsuccessful legal battle to prevent its publication in Australia.


Then there is George Orwell's Animal Farm. On Time magazine's 2005 list of best novels, the book was banned in the USSR for being anti-Communist. It was then banned in the USA for having Communist material in its introduction, despite the novel being a complete satire on Stalin.


Oh yes, you see, "the masses will revolt" won't they? Or, will they...



But in the case of the Wikileaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, it appears those masses may just be the vast number of government officials and not every day citizens. Numbers have to count afterall. For someone like Assange, who believes (and practices) that journalism is "transparent" and should have a "scientific approach" because data proves the facts, I am going to cheekily go against the grain and say from opinion alone that I think his arrest for sexual assault charges is based on a load of bolloxs.


His organisation has released materials on Guantanamo Bay procedures, US involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and about toxic waste dumping in Africa. As soon as he pisses off the Whitehouse by releasing leaks on diplomatic cables, he is branded by Fox News as a "terrorist". Quite. Not granted bail in December 16, 2010 until a £200,000 pay-out was made, his arrest in London lasted nine days and he had been labelled as a possible fugitive.


In Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the Preposterous by journalist Nick Cohen, his chapter The News Is What They Say It Is, points out that newly recruited Observer hacks are given a spoof set of instructions that says: "Everything that ever has been said, is being said and will be said by a PR is, by definition a lie." He also ponders on the 21st century role of journalists, who inhabit "barbed wire, private security patrols, CCTV cameras and card swipers on every door" that then, "emphasise their isolation from the country they are meant to cover."


Another interesting factor Cohen makes is that according to David Michie, a City public relations consultant, is that in 1967 there were 766 PR companies and departments and 10 years later, 9200 PR companies came into fruition. With the business being worth £2.3 billion a year it appears to be "recession-proof" and there are now "25,000 PRs in Britain and 50,000 journalists - one persuader for every two mediators."


So when it comes to spoon-fed news, it isn't just books that will make history for authorities banning them, but for the very words the power-hungry (or is it the famished) never even wanted us to hear. And in the words of George Orwell: "The people will believe what the media tells them they believe."