This version has better Audio and is Multicam, Produced by Cathy Vogan. Legendary Australian writer and film-maker, John Pilger, has returned to Australia to seek urgent help, both government and public, for the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Pilger's public speech at Sydney Town Hall yesterday was informative and painfully moving. Assange, he says, has not only been a victim of persecution from the US and other states, from which he was granted political asylum - or, a place to remain arbitrarily 'holed-up' for 6 years, according to two UN rulings... What troubles Pilger more is the "Vichy journalism", of which he gives numerous examples, that has served to aggregate lies and smear that would demolish public support for Wikileaks, and deflect us from reading the content of their publications. If we would only read them now, we might be skeptical about journalists describing a war hawk as "the icon of our generation"... Even more disturbingly, Pilger reminds us that it was two Guardian journalists, David Leigh and Luke Harding, who recklessly published the password to the trove of USG cables while Wikileaks was in the process of redacting them. That instantly gave criminals and intelligence agencies around the world, including those of repressive states, the information they needed to pursue whistleblowers and dissidents. Like Madelene Albright, they may have said: "It was worth it", to place Wikileaks in such a terrible situation. Pilger read statements from Assange's family, concerning his deteriorating state of health, and from 'Women Against Rape', who are appalled at being manipulated by bogus claims that undermined the credibility of Assange and Wikileaks. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8j42o04AZA

... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na1LDle09hI