(25 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
London – 25 June 2024
++SOUNDBITES SEPARATED BY BLACK FRAMES++
++STARTS ON SOUNDBITE++
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Vaughan Smith, Founder of Frontline Club, freelance journalist and supporter of Assange:
"I’m delighted because this needed to end. And I feel very strongly that it’s been 14 years now and a line needs to be drawn under it. Julian has done enough. And so it’s not ideal journalistically. You know, it hasn’t resolved certain things. The Americans, I think, are wrong to label him as a spy. Which is effectively what they’ve done. So I was really pleased to see this happen. I think it’s good for his family."
++BLACK FRAMES++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Vaughan Smith, Founder of Frontline Club, freelance journalist and supporter of Assange:
"It’s not an outright victory for him and it’s not an outright victory for journalists. I agree. The United States authorities stubbornly wanted to pursue something and I think it’s unfortunate. I think I consider him, and many others do, a political prisoner. And I think it looks very poor for America and Britain to be behaving like this with him, because certainly in much of the world he was seen as a political prisoner and it made us look sort of hypocritical. And so I think it’s good that it’s been resolved. I’m not happy with the outcome entirely. But I think the most important thing is that Julian and his family are able to get on with their lives. 14 years is long enough."
++BLACK FRAMES++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Vaughan Smith, Founder of Frontline Club, freelance journalist and supporter of Assange:
"I did, I visited him before lockdown in Belmarsh (prison). And it’s a pretty unpleasant prison, and it’s a prison for violent people. There are different armbands there. You’ve got a red armband if you’re a violent prisoner and a yellow armband if you’re not. I, when I visited him, saw many more red armbands. And Julian is certainly not a violent person at all. He’s rather a gentle person despite his size. And so it was, I think, very distressing for him to be there. And I think it was rather cruel that he was there on remand for five years, as an Australian citizen being challenged by the Americans for journalism, you know, for publishing.”
++BLACK FRAMES++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Vaughan Smith, Founder of Frontline Club, freelance journalist and supporter of Assange:
"He was fine. Yeah. No, I enjoyed his company. He. He’s not a difficult person. I mean, he gives you an awful lot of attention. He’s always interested in other people’s views. So he’s a very good conversationalist. He’s he’s quite widely knowledgeable. So, you know, you can have all sorts of conversations with him. So he’s somebody who, yeah, I think makes a good houseguest. The problem, well it wasn’t really a problem, but, you know, I don’t think we quite understood that he would need an awful lot of television companies viewing him, visiting him. And so we were inundated with the press. So it wasn’t peaceful. And, of course, he had lots and lots and lots of legal visitors, journalists, visitors, volunteers. So it became a very busy house."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
Vaughan Smith, who helped post Julian Assange’s bail in 2010 and put him up at his house for 13 months, said he was happy to learn he was finally free.
“I’m delighted because this needed to end,” Smith said. “It’s been 14 years now and a line needs to be drawn under it."
The last time he saw Assange was before the COVID-19 lockdown at Belmarsh Prison, a high security prison with many violent offenders.
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