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The City of Bologna in Italy grants honorary citizenship to WikiLeaks founder imprisoned journalist Julian Assange.
Stella Assange, Julian Assange's wife and human rights activist, announced it in a X post on Tuesday as Assange's UK court hearing on extradition begins.
According to Bologna Today, the Municipality of Bologna decided to grant honorary citizenship to Assange on Tuesday, A voting on the agenda was held with 32 votes in favour.
"Giving citizenship to Julian Assange is giving citizenship to freedom of the press, the right to information and the truth – writes the group leader of the Civic Coalition and first signatory of the proposal Detjon Begaj in a statement.
He also said, "In the era of fake news, the right to free and independent information, the right to know documents and facts relevant to the defense of democracy, such as war crimes, which some powers want to hide from public opinion, is fundamental".
"From our city an unequivocal political and institutional signal to defend, together with Assange's life, freedom of the press, the right to free and independent information. Bologna once again takes the side of human rights. The story of Assange, in addition to deserving support for the serious violations of his rights as a prisoner, demonstrates that doing one's job well as a journalist by reporting facts and truth can be dangerous today, to the detriment of freedom of expression, of freedom itself and of life" says the secretary of the Democratic Party of Bologna Federica Mazzoni.
Who is Julian Assange
Assange is a journalist of Australian origin, co-founder of the journalistic and dissemination organization WikiLeaks.
The WikiLeaks platform itself, since 2006, has released documents with news regarding the irregularities of various governments such as corruption and war crimes.
In 2010 WikiLeaks published thousands of classified documents regarding war crimes committed by the USA in various wars. Jailed in 2019 in the United Kingdom on a controversial rape charge in Sweden, he was later accused by the United States of conspiracy.
In addition to the already discussed reasons for his imprisonment, what is being discussed are the methods of the journalist's imprisonment, considered by many to be seriously harmful.
The risk of extradition to the United States hangs over Assange's head, even though the UN and the Council of Europe have already asked that the journalist not be extradited.
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