Rome, April 27 (RHC)-- The European Federation of Journalists has declared WikiLeaks' Julian Assange an honorary member.

Julian Assange is a political prisoner, held in the UK since he was illegally snatched from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in April 2019.

The Italian offices of the FNSI were visited in Rome on Thursday by Julian Assange‘s wife, Stella Morris.  The Italian journalists’ union, at the initiative of its Campania branch, presented Julian Assange with an FNSI membership card. 

Here is the joint appeal delivered to Stella Morris in Rome:

"We, the undersigned European unions and associations of journalists, join the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in calling on the U.S. government to drop all charges against Julian Assange and allow him to return home to his wife and children.

We are gravely concerned about the impact of Assange’s continued detention on media freedom and the rights of all journalists globally. We urge European governments to actively work to secure Julian Assange’s release.

To show our solidarity, we declare Julian Assange a full member, an honorary member or a free member of our organizations."

Signed:

Maja Sever, EFJ President and TUCJ President, Croatia
Fabrizio Cappella, SUGC-FNSI Secretary, Italy
Satik Seyranyan, UJA President, Armenia
Borka Rudić, BHJA General Secretary, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Hrvoje Zovko, HND President, Croatia
Emmanuel Poupard, SNJ First General Secretary, France
Emmanuel Vire, General secretary SNJ-CGT, France
Tina Groll, dju in ver.di President, Germany
Maria Antoniadou, JUADN President, Greece
Laszlo M. Lengyel, HPU Executive President, Hungary
Pavle Belovski, SSNM President, North Macedonia
Luís Filipe Simões, SJ President, Portugal
Darko Šper, GS Kum President, Serbia
Dragana Čabarkapa, Sinos President, Serbia
Zeljko Bodrozic, IJAS President, Serbia
Petra Lesjak Tušek, DNS President, Slovenia
Miguel Angel Noceda, FAPE President, Spain
Urs Thalmann, impressum Director, Switzerland
Tim Dawson, NUJ, United Kingdom