The record shows that the DOJ is adept at using the Espionage Act as a cudgel to punish its political enemies.
Barely two weeks ago, the lawfare cabal at Just Security, led by Andrew Weissmann, the former senior prosecutor for the Robert Mueller special counsel investigation, released the second edition of their “model prosecution memorandum” to (presumably) help out his former colleagues at the Department of Justice (DOJ). The document seeks to offer up nearly any theory of law to “get Trump.”
Just Security bills itself as “an online forum for the rigorous analysis of security, democracy, foreign policy, and rights,” but in practice, the organization, funded in part by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, is the legal beachhead of the Trump resistance. Their model document provides 186 pages of “throw the book at him” musings along with 222 separate footnotes and has largely telegraphed the DOJ’s legal strategy. The document is supported by a variety of public and nonpublic allegations (surely a mixture of leaked information and fabricated information if history is any guide). The fact that their roadmap nearly parallels the now-public indictment of former President Donald Trump is surely a coincidence.
Prosecuting Leaks and Foreign Spies
The “document retention” portion of the Espionage Act states:
§793. Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information
(e) Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it… (emphasis added)
Prominently in their model prosecution memorandum related to the Espionage Act is the acknowledgment that the statute is typically used for “leaking cases and foreign government spies.” Dismissing the DOJ’s historical circumspection regarding its applicability, the document proceeds to weave together a basis to charge Trump under the statute. It is unclear if the fan fiction roadmap was needed, as the record shows that the DOJ is in fact quite adept at using 18 U.S.C. 793 (e) as a cudgel to punish its political enemies. Take for instance the case of Thomas A. Drake.
Government Cudgels a Political Enemy
Drake Joined the National Security Agency (NSA) as an executive on Sept. 11, 2001. He quickly became concerned about illegal activities, waste, and mismanagement within the agency. Accordingly, he attempted to raise concerns through standard channels and even elevated his concerns to Congress as a whistleblower.
Eventually, after getting nowhere trying to blow the lid off both financial waste and abuse of Americans’ fundamental civil rights via certain NSA surveillance programs, he decided to leak certain controlled information to a media contact. The resulting stories about the Trailblazer program published in The Baltimore Sun in 2006 and 2007 embarrassed Michael Hayden’s NSA.
Our government rewarded his efforts in November 2007 with a raid on his home, initially suspecting him of being the source of the leaks that disclosed the agency’s warrantless wiretapping in a 2005 New York Times expose. He denied having anything to do with those leaks but acknowledged providing unclassified information to The Baltimore Sun.
After the raid of his home, which caused him to lose his job, the government sat on the case for nearly three years before indicting him in April 2010. The indictment levied five counts of willful retention of National Defense Information (the Espionage Act charges), one charge of obstruction of justice, and four counts of false statements, but the case was eventually pleaded to a misdemeanor. At sentencing, the judge excoriated the government, first for wasting the court’s time only to settle the case on the eve of trial for a misdemeanor, and second for jerking around the defendant for as long as they did.
THE COURT: What message is sent by the government, Mr. Welch … when the government dismisses a ten-count indictment a year after indictment, on the eve of trial, after days and days of hearings under the Classified Information and Procedures Act, and in what I find to be an extraordinary position taken by the government, probably unprecedented in this courthouse, for a case of this profile, literally on a Thursday afternoon before a Monday trial, subject to the government to be prepared as you will in a moment to dismiss the entire ten-count indictment and allow the defendant to plead guilty to a misdemeanor?
…
THE COURT: And as I tell you, as I say to you, Mr. Welch, I find it extraordinary. I even talked to one of my colleagues about it, his career background is similar to mine, I find it extraordinary in this case for an individual’s home to be searched in November of 2007, for the government to have no explanation for a two year delay, not a two and a half year delay, for him to then be indicted in April of 2010, and then over a year later, on the eve of trial, in June of 2011, the government says, whoops, we dropped the whole case. . . .
Skip The Scoop | Seek Understanding
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded July 19, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
Episode 1,107 – Freight Train of Audits is Full Steam Ahead as More Gets on Board. From the battleground in Georgia to Wall Street. We cover the fraud at hand in both sectors. Guests are: Vernon Jones, Boris Epshteyn, Jessie Holguin, Phillip Patrick, Willis @treekiller35.
Biden Continues To Lie About 2020 Election
Joe Biden has continued to attack anyone asking questions about the results of the 2020 elections. One America’s Scott Wheeler has more.
Bannon’s War Room | Saturday Edition Hour 1 | Recorded July 17, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 31 Seconds
Episode 1,103 – The 3rd November Movement: Audits and Action. Dr. Peter Navarro discusses voter irregularities, and the gaslighting of news Media against conservatives. Guests are: Dr. Peter Navarro, Garland Favorito, Sonny Borrelli, Jane Timken.
Bannon’s War Room | Saturday Edition Hour 2 | Recorded July 17, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 17 Seconds
Episode 1,104 – The 3rd November Movement: Audits and Action. Dr. Peter Navarro discusses voter irregularities, and the gaslighting of news media against conservatives. Guests are: Dr. Peter Navarro, Steve Bannon, Seth Keshel, David Clements.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded July 16, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 43 Seconds
Episode 1,100 – Management of Conflict vs. Expectation of Winning. General Milley must be brought before a court martial, and Noor Bin Ladin discusses the subversion of America. Guests are: Erik Prince, Jack Posobiec, Noor Bin Ladin.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded July 16, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 38 Seconds
Episode 1,101 – Biden Regime Wrestling With Rise of Technology. Noor Bin Ladin discusses the subversion of America, the Marxist end game is active in South Africa. Guests are: Erik Prince, Noor Bin Ladin, Dave Ramaswamy, James Poulos.
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded July 16, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
Episode 1,102 – Trump Not Only Won, He Won By A Landslide. Dr. Peter Navarro discusses voter irregularities, the Ape Movement continues, and the Catholic Church is standing up to the Biden Regime. Guests are: Dr. Peter Navarro, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Krikorian, Dr. Jospeh Mercola, Willis @Treekiller35, Father John Lovell.
June 25, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 54 Minutes 23 Seconds
Pentagon Issues Landmark UFO Report; Derek Chauvin Sentenced to 22.5 Years in Jail.
[ NTD on Rumble ]
FLASHBACK: Demon Joe Biden Broke into US Capitol and Was Arrested — Now He Holds Hundreds of Trump Supporters in Isolation in Prison Without Trial for Very Same Crime (VIDEO)
The Biden administration arrested 5 members of the same family this week for walking inside the US Capitol on Jan. 6.
There have been 532 Americans arrested for trespassing inside the US Capitol on January 6.
The list includes Americans who did not even enter the US Capitol.
It also includes Americans who were waved into the building by Capitol police.
Dozens of these Trump supporters are being held in Washington DC in isolation six months after the Jan. 6 protests without trial.
This is complete totalitarianism.
And because Democrats control the airwaves this horrific story gets no press.
But not everyone gets this same treatment.
Joe Biden told David Letterman that he broke into the US Capitol and was arrested by police.
They let him go.
Democratic Party Won’t Admit It’s Become the Party of Wealth
How often during the last year of wokeness have middle- and lower-class Americans listened to multimillionaires of all races and genders lecture them on their various pathologies and oppressions?
University presidents with million-dollar salaries virtue-signal on the cheap their own sort of “unearned white privilege.”
Meghan Markle and the Obamas, from their plush estates, indict Americans for their biases.
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors Brignac decries the oppressive victimization she and others have suffered — from one of her four recently acquired homes.
Do we need another performance-art sermon on America’s innate unfairness from billionaire entertainers such as Beyonce, Jay-Z or Oprah Winfrey, or from multimillionaire Delta or Coca-Cola CEOs?
During the 1980s cultural war, the left’s mantra was “race, class and gender.” Occasionally we still hear of that trifecta, but the class part has increasingly disappeared. The neglect of class is ironic given that a number of recent studies conclude class differences are widening as never before.
Middle-class incomes among all races have stagnated, and family net worth has declined. Far greater percentages of rising incomes go to the already rich. Student debt, mostly a phenomenon of the middle and lower classes, has hit $1.7 trillion.
States such California have bifurcated into medieval-style societies. California’s progressive coastal elites boast some of the highest incomes in the nation. But in the more conservative north and central interior, nearly a third of the population lives below the poverty line — explaining why one of every three American welfare recipients lives in California. . . .
59 of 96 Phones Assigned to Robert Mueller Probe Missing: GOP Senators
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Jonhson (R-Wis.) sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) requesting more information about missing phones used by former special counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation into former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
In a news release, the two senators said they were compelled to send a letter (pdf) to the agency after the DOJ failed to review more than 20 phones for federal record preservation after Grassley in September 2020 asked about a possible violation of federal record-keeping laws following a Freedom of Information Act revelation showing records on devices used by Mueller’s team were deleted.
The DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General in September 2020, the senators wrote, told them that several phones belonging to “multiple people on then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team were ‘wiped’ for various reasons during [the Russia investigation].” And on May 11 of this year, the inspector general said that 59 of 96 phones assigned to Mueller’s team couldn’t be located, according to the senators.
Relating to the phones, the two senators said they want the names of the Special Counsel’s Office team members whose cell phones are not reviewed by official records, if there are any actions being taken to recover the missing phones, and whether the DOJ reviewed the devices to see if “they were used to leak sensitive or classified information,” among other requests. . . .
Federal agents arrest, turn back record 188,800 immigrants at southern border, report
Federal border patrol agents last month arrested or denied entrance to 188,800 immigrants – the highest monthly total at the southern U.S. border in roughly a decade, according to a news report.
The number is being reported by CNN and based on what the news outlet says is a Department of Homeland Security official familiar with the figures and to previously published data.
The number last month compares to 180,034 in May, bringing the fiscal year total so far to more than 1 million Customs and Border Protection encounters.
The number of immigrants trying to enter the country at the U.S.-Mexico border has increased since May 2020, when roughly 23,000 people were encountered by Customs and Border Protection. This June was the highest monthly number since President Biden took office. . . .
Breyer, Top Liberal Supreme Court Justice, Says He Hasn’t Decided on Retirement
The oldest Supreme Court justice says he has not decided when he will retire amid a push by Democrats to get him to step down.
Justice Stephen Breyer, a Clinton nominee, is and one of three justices nominated by a Democrat president.
The 82-year-old has faced a growing push by congressional Democrats and left-leaning groups to resign during President Joe Biden’s first term so Biden can nominate his replacement.
Fears that Republicans could flip the Senate in 2022 have added urgency to the effort, but Breyer said in a new interview that he’s not sure when he will leave the bench.
“No,” Breyer told CNN when asked if he had decided when he will retire.
Two factors will influence the decision.
“Primarily, of course, health,” said Breyer. “Second, the court.”
Breyer also talked about the position he found himself in after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last year—the most senior liberal-nominated justice. . . .
Privacy Is Still a Victim When Rape Cases Hit the Justice System
Things were supposed to be different this time, Brooke thought in disbelief as the police officer demanded that she hand over every scrap of data on her phone to investigators — not because she was suspected of a crime, but because she was the victim of one. Years earlier, a man who Brooke had until then considered a friend pulled her into a London alley, pushed her against a wall, choked her and violently sexually assaulted her. Her fear and humiliation, more than just the invasion of her body, seemed to be his goal. Several times, she said, she broke free, only to have him catch her, throw her back against the wall, and assault her again.
She reported the attack to the police, who were initially supportive, she said. But then they closed her case after she refused to submit to a “digital strip search” — Britain’s policy of requiring victims of sex crimes to give the police full access to their phone data, social media accounts, school records and even therapists’ notes.
“I always assumed before any of this ever happened to me that the assault would have been the most traumatic thing that could happen,” said Brooke, an actress living in London. (The Times is not using her full name because she is a victim of sexual assault.) But in fact, she said, she found the experience of reporting the crime to the police, only to be treated like a suspect to be investigated herself, far worse.
Fewer than 2 percent of rape cases reported to the police in Britain are ever prosecuted. And the digital strip search is just one of the many policies that a recent government report criticized as contributing to the justice system’s catastrophic failures on rape and sexual assault.
Brooke’s experience is a microcosm of the ways that efforts to address those failures, though fueled by unprecedented public demand for change in the post-#MeToo era, are doomed unless they reckon with the societal and institutional conditions that created them in the first place. . . .
House Democrat-led Jan. 6 select panel schedules first hearing
The select committee looking into the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol will hold its first hearing July 27, Democratic leaders announced Wednesday.
The panel, which is currently made up of eight House lawmakers — seven Democrats as well as Republican Liz Cheney of Wyoming — will hear testimony from law enforcement officers who were assaulted by supporters of former President Donald Trump during the melee.
“We need to hear how they felt, we need to hear what people who broke into the Capitol said to them,” committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told the Associated Press last week.
The House voted largely along party lines on June 30 to set up the select committee after Senate Republicans blocked legislation to create a 9/11-style commission to examine the origins of the riot. . . .
Former Harris Campaign Official Launches Group To Advise Companies On Social Justice Issues
Vice President Kamala Harris’ former campaign finance chair is reportedly launching a strategic advisory firm to advise companies and corporate executives on social justice and other political issues, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Jon Henes, a corporate attorney at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, plans to launch the New York-based group in early September, CNBC first reported. Henes was the national campaign finance chair for Harris’ campaign during the 2020 election and later moved his fundraising efforts to support then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden, according to CNBC.
One source familiar with the matter noted the new advisory firm is initially planning to hire at least 15 people and could later expand operations to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco, CNBC reported. The firm will also include teams that focus on environmental, social and corporate governance, along with workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, sources added. . . .
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded July 15, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 45 Seconds
Episode 1,097 – The Military is Not Ready to Fight. Our military is being weakened and Christian churches are under attack in Canada. Guests are: Jack Posobiec, Pastor Artur Pawlowski, Sydnie Ly.
U.S. Military Leadership’s Slow Descent Into Madness | “Joint Chiefs Chairman Compared Trump to Hitler, MAGA to Nazi ‘Brownshirts'”
After the 2020 election, Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, compared President Donald Trump to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and Trump’s supporters in the MAGA movement to Nazi brownshirts. This only further underscores conservative fears about President Joe Biden’s efforts to root out “extremism” in the military.
“Milley told his staff that he believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military,” Washington Post reporters Carol Leaning and Philip Rucker wrote in their forthcoming book I Alone Can Fix It, CNN reported.
According to the book, Milley feared Trump would launch a coup and he prepared a plan to get the army to resign en masse rather than prevent the peaceful transition of power.
“They may try, but they’re not going to f**king succeed,” Milley reportedly told his deputies. “You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns.” . . .
[ PJ Media ]
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded July 15, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 51 Seconds
Episode 1,098 – The US Decline Parallels With Biden’s Physical Decline. Sonny Borrelli obliterates Democrats over threats AZ audit is criminal, and MTG is taking a big stand in GA over stolen election. Guests are: Jack Posobiec, Sonny Borrelli, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded July 15, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
Episode 1,099 – Election Fraud Blown Wide Open – Other States To Follow. Vernon Jones calls out Kemp and vaccine mandates for kids are making local child advocates make their voices heard. Guests are: John Fredericks, Boris Epshteyn, Vernon Jones, Mark Finchem, Samaire Armstrong.
Who Killed Whitey Bulger New Details Emerge On Possible Attacker | TODAY | Video: 3 Minutes 1 Second
Whitey Bulger had threatened to reveal how the FBI helped him in his criminal activity. After his threats to reveal all, he was “inexplicably” transferred to a notorious prison known for violence and murders and placed in the general population.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded July 14, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 53 Seconds
Episode 1,094 – We’ve Reached a Political Inferno. Biden walked right into a major trap and made a huge fool of himself. Guests are: Mike Lindell, Boris Epshteyn, Steve Cortes.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded July 14, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 53 Seconds
Episode 1,095 – Raffensperger Should Lawyer Up. Biden walked right into a major trap and made a huge fool of himself, dems are sending informants to target Trump terrorists. Guests are: Mike Lindell, Garland Favorito, Jack Posobiec, Don Huffines.
Whitey Bulger Allowed To rob, Extort And Murder With The FBI’s Assistance | 60 Minutes | Video: 13 Minutes 29 Seconds
Whitey Bulger and the FBI – The 60 Minutes report. Whitey Bulger left loose to rob, extort and murder with the FBI’s assistance. Bulger associate says he committed up to 80 murders on the FBI watch and assistance.
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded July 14, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
Episode 1,096 – The National Audit Train is Beginning and MSM is Scared. The rise of transhumanism within our home and the AMC Ape’s hype girl keeps the moral high. Guests are: David Clements, Jordan Conradson, Patrick Wood, Don Huffines, Marcell Felipe, Elsa @ElsaToDaMoon.
Once Corrupt, Always Corrupt | Is It Time to Abolish the FBI? | Video: 5 Minutes 29 Seconds
What is the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) doing spying on American citizens?
The FBI has been seriously abusing its warrantless electronic surveillance authority on American Citizens. This should alarm you.
Congressmen Jim Jordan and Andy Biggs are demanding answers from FBI Director Christopher Wray after a newly declassified opinion from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court revealed “widespread” Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) violations.
Former Acting Director of National Intelligence, Ric Grennell On The FBI’s NAZI-like and Stalinist Call For Families To Spy On Each Other – “Outrageous”
This is outrageous. The @FBI has a growing credibility problem and this type of sinister snitching is clearly unhelpful.
Why hasn’t the @fbi made more progress finding the BLM rioters from last summer? Why hasn’t the @fbi leadership apologized for the Russian hoax they pushed? https://t.co/twmZp7M1wI
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) July 11, 2021
And The FBI Wants Families To Turn In Good Loving Americans While Brutal Murders Happen In Urban Cities On A Daily Basis | Video: 23 Seconds
This is the kind of brutal murder that happens regularly in Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago.
“I’m a patriot and I love this nation. And I believe in the people standing up against the government in the correct way. So, if that makes me radical and an extremist, so be it.” ~ Former Navy Seal Jonathan Gilliam | FBI Asks Americans to Report their Friends, Family | Video: 5 Minutes 40 Seconds
“I’m a patriot and I love this nation. And I believe in the people standing up against the government in the correct way. So, if that makes me radical and an extremist, so be it. Put me on a list. I’m okay with it. . . . At the same time all of this is going on in Cuba, the very people who would stand up against the tyranny in this nation, the oppression in this nation, the very people who are being oppressed whether it’s through social media or the government itself, those are the people they (FBI) are wanting on a list. Not gang members, not people who are in organized crime. They are not asking for any of Hunter Biden’s drug friends. They want good loving, America loving patriots on that list.” ~ Former Navy Seal Jonathan Gilliam
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded July 13, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 20 Seconds
Episode 1,091 – We’re Witnessing a Constitutional Crisis. Col. Allen West will seize the cartels in their tracks if he is elected Texas governor. Guests are: Mike Lindell, Blake Masters, Todd Wood, Heather Mullins, Col. Allen West.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded July 13, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 48 Seconds
Episode 1,092 – Huge Update on Georgia Election Audit. Col. Allen West will seize the cartels in their tracks if he is elected Texas governor, and the people aren’t waiting politicians to save them anymore. Guests are: Todd Wood, Heather Mullins, Col. Allen West, David Clements, Sam Faddis.
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded July 13, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
Episode 1,093 – Panic in Philly: Biden’s Legitimacy Continues To Plummet. Guests are: John Fredericks, Boris Epshteyn, Heather Mullins, Ken Blackwell, Jose Mercola, Garland Favorito.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded July 12, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 23 Seconds
Episode 1,088 – America has Bought Off a Modern Monetary Theory. Cuba protests are a tipping point for much of the rest of the world, and we the people are essentially the federal reserve. Guests are: Marcell Felipe, Jason Miller, Jason Trennert.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded July 12, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 51 Seconds
Episode 1,089 – We Are The Petri Dish For Big Pharma. Dr. Maria Ryan: antibodies are more effective than you think, and the ape army continues the fight through creating a new non profit to educate the masses. Guests are: Mike Roman, Maria Ryan, AMC Marine, Ishmael Benavides.
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded July 12, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 57 Seconds
Episode 1,090 – J&J Vaccine is Getting a Warning Now. J&J vaccine gets a warning label and we discuss the ever shrinking distance with the debt ceiling. Guests are: Naomi Wolf, Boris Epshteyn, Phillip Patrick, Michael aka @so_severe.
A Covid Test as Easy as Breathing
In May, musicians from dozens of countries descended on Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for the Eurovision Song Contest. Over the course of the competition, the performers — clad in sequined dresses, ornate crowns or, in one case, an enormous pair of angel wings — belted and battled it out for their chance at the title.
But before they were even allowed onstage, they had to pass another test: a breath test.
When they arrived at the venue, the musicians were asked to exhale into a water-bottle-sized device called the SpiroNose, which analyzed the chemical compounds in their breath to detect signatures of a coronavirus infection. If the results came back negative, the performers were cleared to compete.
The SpiroNose, made by the Dutch company Breathomix, is just one of many breath-based Covid-19 tests under development across the world. In May, Singapore’s health agency granted provisional authorization to two such tests, made by the domestic companies Breathonix and Silver Factory Technology. And researchers at Ohio State University say they have applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an emergency authorization of their Covid-19 breathalyzer.
“It’s clear now, I think, that you can detect this disease with a breath test,” said Paul Thomas, a chemist at Loughborough University in England. “This isn’t science fiction.” . . .
21 Countries Demand China End Attack on Press Freedom in Hong Kong
The United States and 20 other countries have issued a joint statement expressing concern about the current and future outlook of press freedom in Hong Kong.
The group of 21 governments—part of the “Media Freedom Coalition” that was established in 2019 to advocate for press freedom and the safety of journalists—pointed to the recent forced closure of Apple Daily, a major pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, and the arrest of the paper’s staff.
“The use of the National Security Law to suppress journalism is a serious and negative step which undermines Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and the rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong, as provided for in the Hong Kong Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration,” the July 10 statement reads.
Freedoms in the financial hub have been disappearing at an alarming rate after the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) imposition of its draconian national security law last summer. Since then, dozens of the city’s pro-democracy opposition leaders are now either facing prosecution or sitting in jail, if they haven’t already fled overseas as political refugees.
Recently, Amnesty International stated that the law “has put Hong Kong on a rapid path to becoming a police state and created a human rights emergency for the people living there.” Reporters Without Borders called on democracies around the world “to put more pressure on the Chinese regime to end its authoritarian policies and ensure the restoration of press freedom” in Hong Kong. . . .