The Constitutional State of Sweden is threatened by the Case of Assange

This article was published in the biggest Newspaper in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter, on the 19th of August 2012.

The legal circus surrounding the case of Julian Assange has now attained proportions uprecedented  in legal history. Julian Assange is the only man who has ever been hunted in this fashion across several continents for questioning over the alleged crimes of sexual molestation and rape.

We have therefore reported the prosecutor, Marianne Ny, to the Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsman, JO, because of her handling of the case. The day after Assange was granted asylum by Ecuador, oddly enough, JO Hans Gunnar Axberger dismissed the complaint, citing the ongoing legal proceedings involving Assange.

The facts of the matter are quite simple. Julian Assange had sex with two women on separate occasions during his stay in Sweden. The two women went together to a female police inspector, who was acquainted with one of the two, with the stated intent to compel Assange to undergo an HIV test. However,  the police inspector, instead of processing the case according to Swedish law, filed a police report of rape subject to public prosecution. It is unlikely either of the two women had any idea of the magnitude their visit to the police would take.

Next, a prosecutor decided to order Assange arrested in absentia, although he was in the country. The next day, yet another prosecutor found that there was no basis for charges and dropped the matter.

On August 30, 2010, Assange was interviewed, and he denied the allegations. The next day, lawyer Claes Borgström, who had offered to be plaintiffs’ counsel for the two women, contacted his old friend, the prosecutor Marianne Ny, who in turn decided to reopen the case.

Julian Assange remained in Sweden in order to be available for interviews for five entire weeks, until 27 September, when he left the country after receiving permission from the Prosecutor's Office. This is the context in which Marianne Ny issued a European arrest warrant. Thereafter, Assange offered on several occassions to be questioned in London either in person or via video link. Oddly, Prosecutor Ny categorically rejected these offers, even though such interview methods have been used in other cases.

We are, like Julian Assange's international lawyer, the famous Baltasar Garzón of Spain, deeply concerned about the lack of guarantee of security and transparency, and on what legal grounds action has been taken against Julian Assange. The harassment he has suffered has wrought havoc on his physical and mental health.

The threat against his person is further complicated by the complex behavior of Marianne Ny, representing the Swedish government, towards him.

The result is that Julian Assange's basic rights and freedoms under the United Nations, and his human rights under the European Convention, have been declared irrelevant.

When people seek political asylum, it usually involves seeking protection from a rogue state and, in this case, it appears that Sweden is just such a rogue. It is enough to refer to the cases of Thomas Quick / Sture Bergwall or Catrine da Costa for devastating comparisons.

We two journalists with many decades of experience in press, radio and television both in Sweden and abroad view with increasing horror how uncritical and biased in favor of the political establishment the journalism is in the case Assange.

Everything seems to be aimed to getting Assange extradited to Sweden at any cost, rather than critically examining the prosecutor, Marianne Ny’s, actions that are perfectly coordinated with those of her friend, the lawyer Claes Borgström. Prosecutor Ny has for example said in her inner circle "even if I am wrong, I won’t change my mind."

In the arrest memo from 2010, available online for all to see and spanning over 100 pages, it is clear that both of the two women themselves sought out contact with Assange.

The leaked arrest memo was a legal bomb which has now been mostly forgotten and buried in all the legal twists and turns of the extradition hearings in London, the flight to Ecuador's Embassy and the question of how Assange might be able to get away, away from the once prestigious Swedish machinery of justice.

The case of Julian Assange has revealed the State feminism and its propaganda machinery that are at present in power in this country. It is a machinery in which  men-hating radical feminists without historical roots conspire with journalists who do not understand journalism’s critical task and members of the judiciary who pursue a career under the equal rights and opportunities doctrine.

This machinery views the ordinary Swedish man as a potential rapist and already condemned Julian Assange of sex crimes before being proven guilty or innocent. This is the fashion in which the man with the status of a rock star became one of the world's most hunted men.

Liberation feminism was hijacked in the late 1980s when it was disarmed and renamed 'Jämställdhet' (the equal rights and opportunities doctrine) and co-opted into the power apparatus. “Jämställdhet” became the state norm and an ideology in Sweden. And it became a career ladder, especially in politics, civil service and in the judicial system.

Many liberation feminists disappeared into Swedish universities, where they transformed our struggle into 'scientific knowledge', and became elite feminists. They got money from the State, as universities in Sweden are publicly funded. Instead of talking about 'the sexes' they started talking about 'genders', and the struggle no longer focused on transforming the state apparatus: it switched to targeting the male sex and men as sexual creatures. The present totalitarian gender ideology was also promoted by the Swedish media, which does what is required from it by the State.

In another turn, and especially in the tabloids, selling sex like never before has turned the concept of cynicism to an "understatement".

The Assange case tickles the fancy of journalists who in turn are seducing their readers, listeners and viewers with an exceptionally biased account. In addition, moralistic editorial writers across the country scream for justice for the demeaned women without any reflection on what really happened those days in August 2010, between Julian Assange and the two women.

How the case ends may well be decisive to whether Sweden should continue to be called a state governed by law, in which civil rights are not violated and the European Convention on Human Rights is worth more than the ink it was written with.

Helene Bergman, journalist

Anders Carlgren, journalist

Translated  by Traci Birge

Assange fick klartecken att lämna Sverige

I sin replik på vår artikel ”Fallet Assange ett hot mot den svenska rättsstaten”, undviker kvinnornas försvarsadvokat Claes Borgström att beröra huvudfrågan om varför inte Julian Assange kan förhöras i London. Det var ju åklagare Marianne Ny själv som gav honom tillåtelse att resa dit! Det skriver Helene Bergman och Anders Carlgren i en slutreplik.

I ett brev daterat den 14 september 2010 frågar Julian Assanges dåvarande advokat, Björn Hurtig, Marianne Ny om det finns några hinder för Julian Assange att resa utomlands, eftersom Julian har brådskande affärer där. I en skrivelse den 24 november 2010 från Marianne Ny till Svea hovrätt skriver hon följande:

”...i svaret till advokat Hurtig om det fanns några lagliga hinder för Julian Assange att lämna Sverige svarade jag att det inte fanns det.”

Hon har därefter ändrat sig och vid flera tillfällen stött på advokat Hurtig och velat hålla förhör i Sverige.

Julian Assange lämnade alltså Sverige i god tro.

Tyvärr vill inte Borgström erkänna att han själv ingår i statsfeminismens propagandamaskineri, bl a som f d JämO. Han tycker att det är pinsamt att vi nämner ordet statsfeminism.

I Socialdemokratiska studentförbundets debattskrift Libertas definierar Katrine Kielos ( 2005) statsfeminism enligt följande:

”När statliga organ och myndigheter bedriver feministiskt förändringsarbete med reformer och lagstiftning.”

I vår artikel hävdar vi att när den fria feminismen kidnappades och blev till statlig jämställdhet blev den också en karriärstege för politiker och tjänstemän utan historisk förankring och kunskap om feminismen.

Claes Borgström själv är ett ypperligt exempel på detta. Han utsågs till JämO, för att sedan bli Socialdemokraternas talesperson i jämställdhetsfrågor. En person som ska verka för jämställdhet mellan män och kvinnor, samtidigt som han hävdar att ALLA män bär en kollektiv skuld för våldet mot kvinnor.

Borgström hävdar vidare att vi inte vet att det råder ojämställdhet i Sverige. Då kan jag, Helene Bergman, upplysa advokat Borgström, om att jag under trettio år, långt innan Borgström blev JämO, aktivt verkade i och för feminismen, inte minst som journalist och d å bl a som programledare för kvinnoprogrammet Radio Ellen i Sveriges Radio. Jag är fortfarande feminist, men också för rättvisa.

Claes Borgström – i en rättstat ska den misstänkte behandlas med respekt och som oskyldig till dess han eller hon dömts i domstol.

Helene Bergman, journalist
Anders Carlgren, journalist

”Fallet Assange ett hot mot den svenska rättsstaten”Jagad man. Det svenska rättsväsendets behandling av Julian Assange kan närmast liknas vid trakasserier. Samtidigt har mediernas bevakning varit partisk till förmån för det politiska etablissemanget. Nu har JO avslagit vår anmälan av åklagare Marianne Ny, skriver journalisterna Helene Bergman och Anders Carlgren.

Jagad man. Det svenska rättsväsendets behandling av Julian Assange kan närmast liknas vid trakasserier. Samtidigt har mediernas bevakning varit partisk till förmån för det politiska etablissemanget. Nu har JO avslagit vår anmälan av åklagare Marianne Ny, skriver journalisterna Helene Bergman och Anders Carlgren i Dagens Nyheter idag.

Den juridiska cirkusen kring fallet Julian Assange har nu fått proportioner som saknar motstycke i juridisk historia. Ingen annan man än just Julian Assange skulle bli jagad på detta sätt över flera kontinenter för de påstådda brotten våldtäkt och sexuellt ofredande.

Vi har därför anmält åklagaren Marianne Ny till Justitieombudsmannen, JO, på grund av hennes hantering av ärendet. Men JO Hans Gunnar Axberger avskrev, märkligt nog, saken dagen efter att Assange beviljats asyl, med hänvisning till den pågående rättsliga prövninge

Jagad man. Det svenska rättsväsendets behandling av Julian Assange kan närmast liknas vid trakasserier. Samtidigt har mediernas bevakning varit partisk till förmån för det politiska etablissemanget. Nu har JO avslagit vår anmälan av åklagare Marianne Ny, skriver journalisterna Helene Bergman och Anders Carlgren.

Den juridiska cirkusen kring fallet Julian Assange har nu fått proportioner som saknar motstycke i juridisk historia. Ingen annan man än just Julian Assange skulle bli jagad på detta sätt över flera kontinenter för de påstådda brotten våldtäkt och sexuellt ofredande.

Vi har därför anmält åklagaren Marianne Ny till Justitieombudsmannen, JO, på grund av hennes hantering av ärendet. Men JO Hans Gunnar Axberger avskrev, märkligt nog, saken dagen efter att Assange beviljats asyl, med hänvisning till den pågående rättsliga prövningen.

Sakläget är mycket enkelt. Julian Assange hade sex med två kvinnor vid skilda tillfällen under sin vistelse här i landet. De båda kvinnorna sökte upp en kvinnlig polisinspektör, som var bekant med en av de båda, med avsikt att förmå Assange att genomgå ett hiv-test. Men då våldtäkt faller under allmänt åtal upprättade polisinspektören i stället en anmälan. Ingen av de båda kvinnorna hade helt säkert någon aning om vilka proportioner besöket hos poliskvinnan skulle få.

En åklagare beslöt begära Assange häktad i hans utevaro, trots att han fanns kvar i landet. Dagen därpå fann en annan åklagare att det inte fanns någon grund för påståendena och lade ner saken.
Den 30 augusti 2010 förhördes Assange, som förnekade brott. Dagen därpå vände sig advokat Claes Borgström, som själv hade erbjudit sig att vara målsägarbiträde för de båda kvinnorna, till sin gamla väninna, åklagaren Marianne Ny, som i sin tur beslöt att öppna fallet på nytt.

Julian Assange stannade kvar i Sverige för att vara tillgänglig för förhör under hela fem veckor, fram till den 27 september, då han lämnade landet efter att ha fått lov av åklagarmyndigheten. I det läget utfärdade Marianne Ny en europeisk arresteringsorder. Åtskilliga gånger har Assange därefter erbjudit sig att bli förhörd i London eller via videolänk. Något som åklagaren, märkligt nog, kategoriskt avvisat trots att så skett i andra fall.

Vi är, liksom Julian Assanges internationelle advokat, den berömde spanjoren Baltasar Garzón, djupt oroade över den brist på garanterad säkerhet och transparens samt på vilka juridiska grunder åtgärder har vidtagits mot Julian Assange. De trakasserier han har utsatts för har medfört att hans fysiska och mentala hälsa har lidit svår skada.

Hoten mot hans person försvåras ytterligare av det komplicerade agerande som Marianne Ny, som representant för svenska staten, har åsamkat honom.
Detta har inneburit att Julian Assanges grundläggande fri- och rättigheter enligt Förenta nationerna samt hans mänskliga rättigheter enligt Europakonventionen har försatts ur spel.

När människor söker politisk asyl brukar det handla om att söka skydd undan någon skurkstat och i detta fall framstår den påstådda rättsstaten Sverige just som en sådan skurkstat. Det räcker gott med att hänvisa till fallen Thomas Quick/Sture Bergwall eller Catrine da Costa för att finna fullständigt förödande jämförelser.

Vi två journalister, med många decenniers erfarenhet av press, radio och tv både i Sverige och utomlands, finner med ökande förskräckelse hur okritisk och partisk till förmån för det politiska etablissemanget journalistiken i fallet Assange är.

Allt tycks gå ut på att till varje pris få Assange överlämnad hit till riket, i stället för att kritiskt granska åklagaren Marianne Nys agerande i skön förening med sin vän advokat Claes Borgström. Åklagare Ny har till exempel i en trängre krets sagt att ”även om jag har fel, ändrar jag mig inte”.

I den häktningspromemoria från 2010 på över hundra sidor som finns tillgänglig på nätet för alla och envar, framgår tydligt att de båda kvinnorna själva sökte kontakt med Assange.

Den läckta häktningspromemorian blev till en juridisk bomb, som i dag är bortglömd och begravd i alla turer kring rättsprocessen i London, flykten till Ecuadors ambassad och frågan om hur Assange eventuellt ska kunna ta sig därifrån undan det svenska, numera så prestigefyllda, rättsmaskineriet.
Fallet Julian Assange har synliggjort den statsfeminism med tillhörande propaganda­maskineri som för närvarande gäller här i landet. Det är ett maskineri där manshatande radikalfeminister utan historisk förankring, samverkar med journalister som inte begriper journalistikens kritiska uppgift och medlemmar av rättsväsendet som gör karriär på numera lagstadgad jämställdhet.

Ett maskineri som ser vanliga svenska män som potentiella våldtäktsmän och som redan dömt Julian Assange för sexbrott, innan någon rättegång ägt rum. På så sätt har mannen med status som rockstjärna förvandlats till en av världens mest jagade män.

Den fria feminismen kidnappades i slutet på 1980-talet, avväpnades och döptes om till jämställdhet och införlivades i maktapparaten. Jämställdhet upphöjdes till statlig norm och ideologi och blev en karriärstege inte minst inom politiken, byråkratin och rättsväsendet.

Många av urfeministerna försvann till universiteten och blev elitfeminister och gjorde kampen till vetenskap. Könet blev genus och måltavlan var inte längre statsapparaten utan svängde över mot männen som kön och sexuella varelser. Den rådande totalitära könsideologin anammades också av många traditionella medier som går statens ärenden.

På en annan kant, i framför allt kvällspressen, säljer sex som aldrig förr på ett sätt som förvandlat begreppet cynism till ett ”understatement”. Fallet Assange kittlar journalister till en sällsynt skådad ensidighet som förför läsare, lyssnare och tittare. Därtill kan moralistiska ledarskribenter över hela landet hojta om rättvisa för de förnedrade kvinnorna, utan minsta eftertanke på vad som egentligen hände de där dagarna i augusti 2010 mellan Julian Assange och de två kvinnorna.

Hur fallet avslutas kan mycket väl bli avgörande för om Sverige även i fortsättningen ska kunna kalla sig för en rättsstat, där medborgerliga rättigheter inte kränks och där Europakonventionen om mänskliga rättigheter är värd mer än bläcket den är skriven med.

Helene Bergman, journalist
Anders Carlgren, journalist

Fallet Assange: JO avvisar anmälan mot åklagaren

Justitieombudsmannen, Hans Gunnar Axberger, har avvisar vår anmälan mot åklagaren Marianne Ny med hänvisning till att det pågår en rättslig prövning och då kan inte JO göra en parallell utredning.
Men det finns ju all anledning att återkomma till JO den dag fallet är avslutat.

The Assange Case goes to JO,the Swedish Ombudsmen for Justice

To The Swedish Ombudsmen for Justice (JO)

                                                                              Gothenburg and Stockholm  August, 2, 2012

We most urgent requires that the ombudsmen for justice investigates the Swedish handling of the case of Julian Assange, by the prosecutor Marianne Ny, Director of the Public Prosecution Authority Development Center in Gothenburg.

1. Mr. Assange could have been investigated by the Swedish police before he left the country on September 27, 2010, and with the knowledge of the prosecutor Marianne Ny. At that date Mr. Assange had been available for an interwiev during five weeks.

2. Since Mr. Assange arrived in London, he has on several occasions offered to give his own version of what happened in Stockholm in August 2010, at the Swedish embassy, or being questioned  by video link.

3. In late July, Mr. Assange offered to talk to the Swedish prosecutor, now at the embassy of Ecuador, where he has asked for asylum.

The prosecutor, Ms. Ny has at all different occasions neglected or rejected Mr. Assanges proposals.

Between August 13, and August 16 Mr. Assange had consensual sex with two different women.

On August 20, 2010, the two women went to a local police station in Stockholm in order to urge Mr. Assange to undergo an HIV-test. At that point the police choosed to start an investigation about rape, without the consent of the two women.

On the same day a prosecutor decided to issue an arrest warrant for Mr. Assange. At the time the newspaper Expressen, headlined a front page article “Assange accused of rape”.

The next day another prosecutor decided that there was no reason for the warrant.

On August 30, interrogates Julian Assange for the first time by the Swedish police, and denies all allegations.

The day after the lawyer of the two women, Mr. Claes Borgström, who also was a former Swedish Ombudsman for equality, requested that the case should be reopened by the prosecutor in Gothenburg, Marianne Ny.

Julian Assange is now again accused of rape, molest, and sexual harassment.

Mr. Assange stayed in Sweden until September 27 for further questioning.

We are, like his lawyer, Mr. Baltasar Garzón, serious concerned, regarding the lack of safeguards and transparency with which actions are being taken  against Julian Assange, and the harassment he is being subjected to which has irreparable effects on his physical and mental wellbeing.

The threats against his person are further aggravated by the complicit behavior of the Swedish governmental authorities.

This has implied that Mr. Assanges civil rights, and his rights according to the European Convention have been violated.

Helene Bergman, journalist

0707 31 23 33

helenebergman@me.com

Anders Carlgren, journalist

072 32 33 102

anderscarlgren@hotmail.com

My Meeting with the Most Wanted Man - the Assange Case

After the negative media campaign that Assange has suffered by Swedish journalists, I was pleasantly surprised when the news came that Assange wanted to see me.

I was in London on a completely different journalistic matter, and took a chance.

When my English colleague got to know that I would be meeting Assange, she furrowed her brow and then admonished me seriously:

"Keep at arm's length from him. Do not sit too close! He only sees women as sex objects!"

I asked if she had met him.

"No-oo," she replied, "but I've read and heard a lot about him."

The last thing she said before we parted was,

"Be careful!"

I smiled and thought "what men do not see women as sex objects and vice versa!”

As I stepped out into the March sun on Groswell Road in London, the woman A's words from the detention memorandum in the case Assange echoed inside me.

As she says:

"I was proud as shit, to get the world’s coolest man in bed and living in my apartment."

From then, everything changed for Assange.

He went from being the world’s coolest man to an internationally hunted man. A man who has sought political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London out of fear of being extradited from Sweden to the United States. However, he is not afraid to answer a police interrogation of suspicions of alleged sex crimes in Sweden.

It is the hunted man with the ball and chain I'm about to meet in London; before he sought refuge in a South American embassy and before he received the news from the High Court in London that he will be extradited to Sweden.

He is a man the media paints as a demon, a womanizer, erratic and arrogant.

Why do I see him? Because I am convinced that it is not true. My long experience of life as a journalist and feminist, and of men and journalist colleagues, says it is a false picture.

But the only way to be sure is to see him, to look into his eyes, to talk to him, to hear what he has to say. That is the way of serious journalistic work.

I sympathized from the beginning with Wikileaks’ and its founder, Julian Assange’s, ideology to stand up for the people and speak truth to power. It resonated well with the original feminist journalist ideology that I have worked for during all my years as a journalist. Standing up for the oppressed. In most cases it is women, but there are also men who are oppressed.

Simply put: To give a voice to the weak. Expose the powerful! It is the heart of real journalism.

Thus, Julian Assange views the world in the same feminist way as I do.

I saw, and see, him as a colleague. A colleague who, in just a few years, has become a world celebrity, who has received awards for his journalistic achievements, but who also has burdens and encumbrances to bear. Not exclusively good, but not evil, either. In short a man.

I got myself ready at the inexpensive but well-situated hotel not far from Kings Cross and then went for a walk in the small park outside the hotel when I became bored of my room. The park was surrounded by a tall, black wrought iron fence, that contained within it Japanese cherry trees in full bloom with pink flowers. I sat on a park bench in the sun and wondered how I would meet Julian. I assumed he knew who I was, because he agreed to meet with me.

I decided to take on the protective role of a journalist, even though this would not be an interview. That would come later. It was just a meeting and Julian knew that too.

I had received a forwarded email:

"Dear B,

Please can Helene meet Julian at 12.30 pm at the following address:

Christopher`s

18 Wellington Street

Covent Garden

London. WC2E 7DD

just of the Strand near Aldwych

Both booked under XX

Best

S.”

When I saw the email, it felt as if I were taking part in a spy novel. I Googled for Christopher `s and read that they had a modern American kitchen. Almost a provocation that we meet right there!

The entrance was grand. The high glass door was arched and surrounded by four tall Greek Ionic columns in modernized form.

I was expecting to be invited to lunch.

The Pakistani man in the reception at my small hotel called a taxi for me. Ten minutes later, a car driving without a taxi sign but with a taximeter arrived. The driver was from Bangladesh and was friends with the Pakistani.

The run took about ten minutes and the taxi driver and I had time to talk about Bangladesh and that there was a large Bangladeshi community in London. I have a particular journalistic interest in Bangladesh and, coincidentally, that interest was the reason why I was in London.

The taxi dropped me off outside the entrance of Christopher `s at just the right time.

Hesitantly, I ascended the five broad stone stairs and the glass doors opened silently to reveal a vestibule in which sat an elegant young lady. She smiled kindly at me and I presented myself.

She looked down at her booking list, nodded and asked me to sit down at the bar and wait.

It was mostly men in casual clothes sitting at tables in the bar.

I made my way to the built-in sofa by the windows. Sitting there, I had a good view of the entrance, which meant that I would see Julian before he saw me.

A waiter came over and asked if I’d like to order anything. I asked for water.

Time passed. Every time the glass doors opened, I felt a tug inside me. But so far, no Julian.

Finally, a tall man, accompanied by a short dark man, and wearing a crème brown hat came through the glass doors. As they made their way to the fashionable lady at the desk, I saw that it was Julian.

Both men turned toward the bar and came right over. Julian clearly knew what I looked like, so I assumed he had seen my picture from Newsmill, where my articles have been published.

Julian smiled when he saw me. I stood up and he greeted me in a friendly way with a kiss on both cheeks. I felt as if we had known each other a long time and I dropped my journalist's role. I greeted his companion a bit more formally. S wore a Palestinian scarf around his neck and dressed in a baggy t-shirt: He appeared a generally pleasant and likable sort.

Julian sat down beside me and took off his hat. His hair was quite white and his eyes were intensely blue with an intelligent and friendly look. He wore a thin knitted sweater, beige chinos and a pair of ugly shoes.

The waiter arrived and Julian asked S how much money they had.

"Enough for water," said S and ordered Perrier.

I began by saying that I read his book, "Memoirs are prostitution."

Julian froze:

"It's not my book! In all other countries, except Sweden, a label has been placed on the cover that the book is not authorized by me. Further, there are several errors in the book and my mom has never been a hippie."

After that invitation to talk, Julian continued himself without further prompting. He talked so much. I got the feeling that he had a real need to talk, to explain, to set things right.

He was worried about the Swedish legal system. Not when it came to prison, but about the jail. He had heard that he would be locked up without any contact with the outside world. Before he was even convicted, even before he was charged.

He pulled up his trouser leg and showed me the grey anklet. There was no bitterness, just a bit upset of having had to wear it for so many

days, over 400 days already when we were at Christopher's in London that spring day in March.

Julian did not mention a word about what happened in Stockholm a year and half ago, nor did I ask. However, he asked what I was doing in London. When I told him, I saw how the journalistic spark in his eyes awoke.

"That," he said. "That, I would like to publish on Wikileaks. He sounded enthusiastic, and I thought, “finally, someone understands my story about the giant vaccine scandal in the laboratory, where people in Bangladesh have been used as guinea pigs and where Sweden is involved”.

At the same time, I was amazed that he, in the situation he was in, could manage to become engaged in my project.

I shifted a little, changed the subject. We joked about Sweden, about this and that, and even about sex, in that way that you can with someone you trust, with someone whom you know will not misunderstand you.

The hour we had at our disposal was too short. I think we both wanted to continue talking. What struck me most was that Julian Assange was so well-read and analytically insightful. In other words, he seemed to be fully on top of the situation.

The obvious continuation of this open-ended meeting was to make an in-depth interview with Julian, even despite him being deeply critical of Swedish journalists.

Through my contacts, I got the green light! I sent over the twenty questions I wanted him to answer:

For example, what does he think about his transformation from hero and "rock star" to demon and alleged rapist in the media?

About how the media has painted him as an arrogant male chauvinist pig.

How is his relationship with women? What does he think about the feminist movement?

Does he regret starting Wikileaks, considering all that has happened to him? Is he afraid of being extradited to the U.S.? And much more.

Well Assange was willing to answer all the questions, but none of the Swedish newspapers I approached (Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, or Aftonbladet) were willing to publish the interview. I never got any answers as to why they were uninterested.

However I wasn´t surprised. For more than a year I had tried to get my articles about Julian Assange and the State feminism in Sweden  published in the biggest main stream media in Sweden.  I haven`t succeeded and I don’t understand why. Instead, I have read a lot of articles and chronicles without much facts but lots of smear of Assange. Even the Swedish Television hadn´t been objective, although it should be, as their regulations stipulate it should be.

The sad and horrific result is that the public in Sweden still does not know what Assange thinks, only what his opponents think.

Helene Bergman, a journalist and former host of the legendary women's program Radio Ellen on Swedish Radio.
Translater from Swedish to English: Traci Birge

Julian Assange is already condemned by Swedish State feminism

Julian Assange's case exposes the prevailing doctrine of state feminism in Sweden and its accompanying propaganda machinery.

It is a machinery where man-hating radical feminists with no grasp of feminism's legacy, journalists who wield power but have no real understanding of the purpose of journalism, and members of the judicial system who want to make a career out of the equal rights and opportunities doctrine work hand in hand.

What is happening in Sweden today is unworthy of a country that calls itself a democracy.

But that's not all! Julian Assange's case has revealed the true face of Swedish patriotism as well. Whosoever dares criticize this propaganda machinery risks being either ignored or condemned through guilt by association.

But I take this risk because, after all, I am a journalist and a feminist in Sweden, and the right of freedom of expression also applies to me, even if I am critical.

Julian Assange’s affairs in Stockholm opened the floodgates for the downgraded variants of feminism and journalism that are present in Sweden today.

The preliminary investigation protocol detailing Julian Assange's liaisons with two women makes for shocking reading for a Swedish feminist pioneer of the 1970s.

I am one of those who, as the host for many years of the legendary women's program Radio Ellen on Swedish Radio, fought for women’s rights and equality between the sexes.

I could never have dreamt that a legitimate struggle for equal rights and opportunities for both women and men would degenerate into state feminism devoid of common sense and reason.

Those of us who pioneered feminism in Sweden in the 1970s fought for our sexual freedom and for the right to take responsibility for ourselves, but we also fought to be able to, like men already do, enjoy sex.

Sexual liberation went hand-in-hand with the demand that we as women must be able to support ourselves and not be economically dependent on men. This is essential because only when we women are economically independent will we be able say 'no' if we feel we are being sexually used. Being a feminist is not about hating men. Feminism is about strengthening women’s self esteem, not about making ourselves into victims or being categorized by the state as victims by default.

But in today's feminist Sweden, the following can happen. In the preliminary investigation minutes for the case of Julian Assange in Sweden, I read: Woman A. says about her relationship with Julian Assange: "I was proud as hell to get the world's coolest man in bed and living in my apartment." After having sexual intercourse on numerous occasions, she goes to the police.

How did Sweden's sexual revolution of the 1970s transform into an oppressive 21^st century power apparatus where men are portrayed as potential enemies and threats to the state? A state in which those who criticize the prevailing system are denied a voice in the media.

Liberation feminism was hijacked in the late 1980s when it was disarmed and renamed 'Jämställdhet' (the equal rights and opportunities doctrine) and co-opted into the power apparatus. Jämställdhet became the state norm and an ideology in Sweden. And it became a career ladder, especially in politics, civil service and in the judicial system.

Many pioneering feminists disappeared into Swedish universities, where they transformed our struggle into 'scientific knowledge', and became elite feminists. They got money from the State, as universities in Sweden are publicly funded. Instead of talking about 'the sexes' they started talking about 'genders', and the struggle no longer focused on transforming the state apparatus: it switched to targeting the male sex and men as sexual creatures. The present totalitarian gender ideology was also promoted by the Swedish media, which does what is required from it by the State.

In today's Sweden, the media is dedicated to educating the population rather than to keeping power in check.

When it comes to Julian Assange there are, naturally, underlying motivations. He challenged media by doing what every journalist dreams of: a global Scoop!

What Julian Assange and WikiLeaks did was wound the pride of many journalists.

Every journalist dreams of getting The Scoop, but very few manage to pull it off.

The Swedish tabloid Expressen tried to turn Julian Assange himself into the scoop with the headline: "Manhunt for Wikileaks Julian Assange - suspected of rape in Sweden."

Some hours later the investigation was cancelled. It was later re-opened by a new prosecutor, Marianne Ny, who clearly holds radical feminist views. She collaborates with the politician, lawyer, and former Jämställdhet ombudsman, Claes Borgström.

And now it’s not only the two women who voluntarily invited Julian Assange to their homes and slept with him several times before they discovered that he was simply a normal horny man. Now, the media too had discovered that Julian Assange was not some saint, but a typical horny man.

But the bloodthirsty media forces initiated a hunt without checking the facts of the case and without waiting for a trial. Instead, the media became judge and jury because the politically correct approach in today’s Sweden is that women are always victims and are blameless when it comes to sex.

That fact that the media behaves like some kind of people’s court of mob justice in the case of Julian Assange is very serious; the media whipping up a hostile sentiment against Julian Assange before he has even been brought to trial in a Swedish court is in violation of his human rights. It is a grave state of affairs when Sweden's biggest newspapers won't even publish his own words.

The media should not take the role of the courts by speculating about a case before due process has been carried out and judgment rendered. The media's role is to examine the facts and show respect for the rule of law in a democracy.

Sensationalist headlines, tabloid journalism based on rumor and personal antagonism is not journalism. It is simply a way of selling newspapers and cheating the public. This form of Swedish journalism is unworthy of a democracy.

Worst of all is the fact that Julian Assange has been under house arrest in England with an electronic tagging device on his ankle for over 500 days. He does not want to go to Sweden because he fears that Sweden will extradite him to the United States.

Julian Assange's case raises serious questions about human rights violations in the democratic country we call Sweden. But the media will not report on this. It is preoccupied with creating as much antagonism towards Julian Assange as possible.

Helene Bergman

Journalist, feminist and former radio host of the legendary women's programme Radio Ellen on Swedish Radio.
Translater from Swedish to English:
Traci Birge