AL, “a beacon of light in the street, darkness in the house” in freedom of expression and the Julian Assange case

In the matter of freedom of expression and the case of the release by Julian Assangesome countries of Latin America They fit into the description of the popular saying street lamp, darkness of your housewhich refers to a hypocritical attitude, since they express kindness on the outside, but repress it on the inside.

And while political leaders hailed the release of Julian Assange as a victory for the right to free expression, Inside their countries, journalists and activists are persecuted and imprisonedspecialists and NGOs recall

Banners with the phrase street lamp, darkness of your housemight appear on the many banners waved by the governments of Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela o Colombia to celebrate the release of Julian Assange.

AL, “a beacon of light in the street, darkness in the house” in freedom of expression and the Julian Assange case

And the reality of freedom of the press and expression in those and other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean showed… the darkness of the house.

Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia: street lamp, darkness of your house

The leftist presidents of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador; from Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel; from Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro; and from Colombia, Gustavo Petro, rushed out the day before yesterday to celebrate Assange’s freedom.

With nuances, they boasted of pointing to it as a triumph of press freedom, even though in their countries journalism was under threat and might not be freely practiced due to the fault of their governments.

“We underline the paradox that some of the most nefarious states in freedom expression in their own countries have been the first to congratulate “for the release of Assange,” said Colombian lawyer Jimena Reyes, director for the Americas of the (non-state) International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in Paris.

AMLO: street lamp, darkness of your house, stigmatizes journalists

Referring to what he described as repression once morest journalists and the press in Venezuela or Cuba, Reyes stated that, in his morning press conferences and As a “populist leader,” “López Obrador has stigmatized journalists and the press in a country where many of these journalists are murdered for having the courage to spread truthful information regarding the Mexican reality.”

“All these presidents should rather look at what is happening at home and make drastic changes to really have the legitimacy to congratulate themselves on the release of Assange,” he said.

The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which is part of the Organization of American States (OAS) system, specified in 2024 in its 2023 report that in Mexico there is “growing stigmatization, disqualification and discredit” of politicians and public officials “ once morest the press”.

Cuba and Venezuela They have repeatedly occupied the last places in American and world lists of countries with the least or no press freedom.

The Cuban communist regime has monopolized journalistic control since 1960.

Repression of journalism in Venezuela has intensified steadily since 1999, when the current ruling apparatus was installed in that country.

The (non-state) Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), from Bogotá, revealed in 2023 the Danger of press work in Colombia by communicating that, Every two days, a Colombian journalist was threatened for seeking the truth and the news, while Petro dedicated himself to confronting the media and reporters, whom he accused of lacking credibility.

Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia do not lead by example

“It’s fundamental that is preached by example and that those who hold positions of public power are consistent with freedom “full exercise of the right to freedom of expression and of the press,” said journalist Yanancy Noguera, president of the College of Journalists of Costa Rica, an independent body for the defense of local journalism.

“The right to freedom of expression and the press has no surnames“That is to say, it has no adaptations to the tastes and preferences of people, and even less so to political figures,” Noguera told this newspaper.

Stressing that “the right to freedom of expression is complete freedom and the right to freedom of the press is complete freedom with absolute independence and respect for the development of the work of the independent press,” he stressed that “the adaptations, surnames, and predicates that political figures want to give to the two rights go once morest the right itself.”

Who is Julian Assange?

Founder of WikiLeaks, he was registered at birth as Julian Paul Hawkinsbut is known as Julian Assange and claim to fame world in 2010 by uncovering hundreds of thousands of secret documents of the United States government on that site regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The revelations included the Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s shady ties to the late Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi (1942-2011), Cuba’s fears that its internal information bubble would burst with the introduction of social media into cell phones, and the 2012 warning that the then president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez (1954-2013), had only one or two years left to live.

Persecuted by the US, Assange strengthened his Latin American ties by asking asylum from 2012 to 2019 at the Embassy of Ecuador in Londonfrom which he emerged to spend until the day before yesterday in a British prison following being released due to an agreement with the USA.

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