BBC, Sky News Have Hidden Their Interviews With UN Expert On The Torture Of Assange By Caitlin Johnstone!!!!
(2019-06-02 at 14:27:44 )

BBC, Sky News Have Hidden Their Interviews With UN Expert On The Torture Of Assange by Caitlin Johnstone

United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture Mr. Nils Melzer has said that on the 31st of May he gave video interviews with both Sky News and the BBC on his findings that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is the victim of psychological torture.

As of this writing, footage of those interviews is nowhere to be found.

In response to a smear by virulent empire propagandist Idrees Ahmad about his conducting an interview with RT, Mr. Melzer tweeted that he has given interviews to both Sky News and BBC World, but that they seem not to have been aired.

"So the United Nations rapporteur actually appeared on the Kremlins premier propaganda network-yes, the propaganda network of the state that shoots journalists in the face-to discuss Julian Assanges -torture-," tweeted Mr. Ahmad, pretending to be under the illusion that United Nations experts are meant to remain exclusively loyal to a specific group of nations.

"For the record: On 31 May, I have also given similar exclusive TV interviews to both Sky News and BBC World on Julian Assange, but it seems they decided not to broadcast them," Mr. Melzer responded.

Indeed, there is as of this writing no video footage to be found anywhere of Mr. Melzers interviews with either of these outlets.

If you search for online video footage of Nils Melzer conducting interviews on this subject, you will find videos from RT and Ruptly, you will find his excellent interview on Democracy Now which we discussed recently, but you will not find videos from BBC World or Sky News, nor any record of any video interviews ever having been aired.

So appears that these interviews were never aired at all, or, if they were aired, have had any record of them hidden from easy online visibility.

In any case, this is a big deal.

The BBC published one print article that contains a few small excerpts from a discussion with Mr. Melzer, but in terms of impact and quantity of information this comes nowhere close to a televised interview and online video footage.

The idea that anyone from the United Nations should only be giving interviews to western media outlets is of course ridiculous, and it is made even more ridiculous by the fact that Mr. Melzer has been wide open to speaking with any platform that is willing to circulate his findings, including my own.

"I stand ready to respond to uncomfortable questions, but then media must also stand ready to publish uncomfortable truths," Mr. Melzer told me via Twitter when asked about the missing footage.

He said the interviews were conducted with BBC World and Sky News via Skype, and lasted about five minutes each.

We may be sure that "uncomfortable truths" were indeed what came out in Mr. Melzers interview.

Watch any existing video interview that Mr. Melzer has done on this subject and you will see how much damning information he packs into each minute of footage.

You may also get a pretty strong suspicion of why establishment narrative management firms like the BBC and Sky News may not have wanted to publicize that footage.

"United Kingdoms BBC News and Sky News censored exclusive interviews with United Nations Torture expert Nils Melzer showing overwhelming evidence that Mr. Assange has been deliberately exposed to progressively severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," tweeted the Defend Assange campaign in response to Mr. Melzers post.

"So the BBC and Sky kept the United Nations expert on torture off air, and viewers were denied the chance to hear that, in his expert opinion, the United Kingdom state has subjected Julian Assange to torture.

I am struggling to understand how that decision could be justified by any normal news values," said British journalist Jonathan Cook.

Pressure must be put on these outlets to explain why they did not air these exclusive interviews, and they must be forced to give a response.

Yes, any response we might get will be mealy-mouthed, they will make some huffy noises about limited air time etcetera, but they need to know that people are not just watching what they are airing with skepticism, they are watching what they are ignoring.

When it comes to propaganda, lies by omission are even more pernicious than outright lies because they are difficult to confront.

Do not let them fool you, this story is big.

In terms of newsworthiness, it meets all the criteria and then some.

Nils Melzer is great "talent" as they say; he is well spoken and interesting, and he has hugely important things to say about a hugely important situation.

There is no reason to bin these interviews other than backroom politics.

Demand to know what went on behind closed doors.

Julian Assange has been tortured. His health has been declining dangerously. The United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Ecuador and Australia are responsible for this.

They did this to him because he published inconvenient facts about the powerful.

These are truths.

They are uncomfortable truths, but they are truths we all must ingest, process, and respond to.

UPDATE: Mr. Melzer reports that Sky News may have aired his interview on television, though it remains hidden online.

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