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Do not fill this in! ====Treatment of Julian Assange==== ''The Guardian'' published the [[United States diplomatic cables leak|US diplomatic cables files]] and the [[Guantanamo Bay files leak|Guantanamo Bay files]] in collaboration with [[Julian Assange]] and [[WikiLeaks]].<ref name="spectator210621">{{cite web |last1=Greenwood |first1=Phoebe |title=Will the right save Julian Assange? |url=https://thespectator.com/topic/will-right-save-julian-assange/ |website=The Spectator World |access-date=7 February 2024 |date=21 June 2021 |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240207053042/https://thespectator.com/topic/will-right-save-julian-assange/ |archive-date= Feb 7, 2024 }}</ref> When some of the diplomatic cables were made available online in unredacted form, WikiLeaks blamed ''Guardian'' journalists [[David Leigh (journalist)|David Leigh]] and [[Luke Harding (journalist)|Luke Harding]] for publishing the encryption key to the files in their book ''[[WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=WikiLeaks password 'leaked by journalists' |url=https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-pondered-poisoning-assange-court-told/919d931e-f6cf-4974-aa8c-6bcfcf9a51a8 |website=9News |publisher=AAP |access-date=7 February 2024 |date=25 February 2020 |archive-date=22 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222154156/https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-pondered-poisoning-assange-court-told/919d931e-f6cf-4974-aa8c-6bcfcf9a51a8 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''The Guardian'' blamed Assange for the release of the unredacted cables.<ref>{{cite web |title=Anger as Wikileaks releases all US cables unredacted |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-14765837 |website=BBC News |access-date=7 February 2024 |date=2 September 2011 |archive-date=9 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221109212533/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-14765837 |url-status=live }}</ref> Journalist [[Glenn Greenwald]], a former contributor to ''The Guardian'', accused ''The Guardian'' of publishing false claims about Assange in a report about an interview Assange gave to Italian newspaper ''[[La Repubblica]]''. ''The Guardian'' article had claimed that Assange had praised [[Donald Trump]] and criticised [[Hillary Clinton]] and also alleged that Assange had "long had a close relationship with the Putin regime". Greenwald wrote: "This article is about how those [''Guardian''{{'s}}] false claims—fabrications, really—were spread all over the internet by journalists, causing hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) to consume false news".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://theintercept.com/2016/12/29/the-guardians-summary-of-julian-assanges-interview-went-viral-and-was-completely-false/|title=The Guardian's Summary of Julian Assange's Interview Went Viral and Was Completely False|last=Greenwald|first=Glenn|date=29 December 2016|work=[[The Intercept]]|access-date=4 February 2017|archive-date=5 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205141438/https://theintercept.com/2016/12/29/the-guardians-summary-of-julian-assanges-interview-went-viral-and-was-completely-false/|url-status=live}}</ref> ''The Guardian'' later amended its article about Assange to remove the claim about his connection to the Russian government.<ref>{{cite web|last=Jacobs|first=Ben|date=24 December 2016|title=Julian Assange gives guarded praise of Trump and blasts Clinton in interview|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/24/julian-assange-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-interview|website=The Guardian|access-date=4 February 2017|archive-date=6 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206171025/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/24/julian-assange-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-interview|url-status=live}}</ref> While Assange was in the Ecuadorian embassy, ''The Guardian'' published a number of articles pushing the narrative that there was a link between Assange and the Russian government.<ref name="spectator210621"/> In a November 2018 ''Guardian'' article, [[Luke Harding]] and Dan Collyns cited anonymous sources which stated that [[Donald Trump]]'s former campaign manager [[Paul Manafort]] held secret meetings with [[WikiLeaks]] founder [[Julian Assange]] inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2013, 2015, and 2016.<ref>{{cite news |last1= Harding |first1= Luke |last2= Collyns|first2= Dan |date= 27 November 2018 |title= Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy |url= https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy |newspaper = The Guardian|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181127143814/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy |archive-date= 27 November 2018 }}</ref> The name of a third author, [[Fernando Villavicencio]], was removed from the online version of the story soon after publication. The title of the story was originally 'Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy'. A few hours after publication, 'sources say' was added to the title, and the meeting became an 'apparent meeting'.<ref name="lemonde010119">{{cite web |last1=Halimi |first1=Serge |title=The Guardian's fake scoop |url=https://mondediplo.com/2019/01/10guardian |website=Le Monde diplomatique |access-date=9 November 2021 |language=en |date=1 January 2019 |archive-date=9 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109041118/https://mondediplo.com/2019/01/10guardian |url-status=live }}</ref> One reporter characterised the story, "If it's right, it might be the biggest get this year. If it's wrong, it might be the biggest gaffe." Manafort and Assange both said they had never met, with the latter threatening legal action against ''The Guardian''.<ref>{{cite news |last= Pompeo |first= Joe |date= 27 November 2018 |title= "It Might Be the Biggest Get This Year": How The Guardian's Bombshell Set Off Its Own Little Media World War |url= https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11/the-guardian-paul-manafort-julian-assange |newspaper= Vanity Fair |access-date= 16 December 2018 |archive-date= 1 December 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181201114503/https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11/the-guardian-paul-manafort-julian-assange |url-status= live }}</ref> Ecuador's London consul Fidel Narváez, who had worked at [[Embassy of Ecuador, London|Ecuador's embassy in London]] from 2010 to July 2018, said that Manafort had not visited Assange.<ref name="lemonde010119"/> [[Serge Halimi]] said Harding had a personal grievance against Assange and noted that Manafort's name does not appear in the Ecuadorian embassy's visitors' book and there were no pictures of Manafort entering or leaving "one of the most surveilled and filmed buildings on the planet".<ref name="lemonde010119"/> ''The Guardian'' has neither retracted nor apologised for the story about the meeting. Stella Moris, Assange's wife, said ''The Guardian'' failed in its responsibility to Assange and its "negligence has created such a problem that if Julian dies or is extradited, that will forever blot the reputation of the ''Guardian''".<ref name="spectator210621"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page