July 14, 2023
The Berlin Academy of Arts has announced that it will award the 2023 Konrad Wolf* Prize to Julian Assange, despite the fact that he is unlikely to attend the ceremony scheduled for October 20, due to his detention in the maximum security prison of Belmarsh, in London (UK).
In a statement, the jury highlighted that “Assange’s work and positions drew attention to illegal actions of governments, injustices, murders and war crimes that were to remain hidden from public knowledge”.
It was also learned that Julian Assange is being awarded for being the founder of WikiLeaks, a media outlet that, mainly through its website, has played a fundamental role in disseminating information about reality, allowing citizens to take awareness and action.
The Konrad Wolf 2023 committee also highlighted that Assange embodies “the essence of creating awareness through journalism at its best, due to his effort to bring about transformative change in the world, through democratic means; which is much needed.”
In recent years, the Berlin Academy of Arts has repeatedly called on the German government and European political leaders to secure the release of the Australian journalist, who sets an example for intimidating and weakening the fourth estate.
*Konrad Wolf and his family had to flee Germany from the Nazis in 1933 to the Soviet Union. He went on to be a soldier in the Soviet Army and took part in the battle to capture Berlin. He later became one of the German Democratic Republic’s most important film directors and president of the East German Academy of Arts.
Source: Cuba Si