He has been travelling for months to mobilize public opinion and save Julian Assange, who is for him not only the founder of Wikileaks but also his older brother. To dialogue with the public, Gabriel Shipton, Australian citizen and filmmaker by profession, has produced a moving film, Ithaka, directed by Ben Lawrence, that tells the Assange story from the highly private standpoint of his wife Stella, his father, John Shipton, and their worldwide campaign to save him. Il Fatto Quotidiano sat down to interview him.
What is your first memory of Julian, as a brother?
We didn’t grow up together, Julian and I. I got to know him when I was in my late teens, and my first memories of Julian were when he would come up to Sydney and visit us, me and my dad. He would fly to Sydney and even brought his bicycle on the plane, which he rode back from the airport to our house. I always remember that he had a great way with him in conversations. He would explain very complicated things, but very simply, whether it was technology or maths or science.
How was he, as a brother?
We didn’t grow up together, so the relationship unfolded in a different way. Over the years I came to visit him wherever he was, whether he was in Ellingham Hall and many times in the embassy. He was always willing to listen to what was going on in my life and figured out ways in which he could support me. I think a lot of people who knew Julian experienced this as well, not just me: he was always generous no matter what was going on.
Did he ever tell you: I shouldn’t have invested my life in such a risky media organisation like WikiLeaks?
No, never. For a very long time he was very interested in how to use these tools – the internet, the architecture of the internet, cryptography – to expose injustice or protect sources. Even before WikiLeaks he was working on ways to use encryption for sources and for journalists, so they could keep things protected even if they were being tortured. So it’s seems it is in his blood…He was always thinking how can we use encryption to protect people, to expose corruption? not thinking about: how can we make more money?
You have visited him in Belmarsh: how was he doing?
I have been in Belmarsh many times. When he first came out of the embassy, he was essentially being kept in solitary confinement. Those were the scariest times to go and see him, because you would find him in a state that I have never actually seen before, and you would only be there for a couple of hours, and you had to leave and would never know what was going on inside the prison. Those were very very distressing times. Going to see him at the prison is still very distressing. The visits are more regular now, which is helpful, as he gets to see his family more often, but there is always that feeling… I get quite anxious going to the prison because I never know… I remember those times when I found him in a bad way.
Does he realise that there is a large mobilization under way to save him?
Yes, and I would say that knowing that not just people all around the world are fighting for his freedom, but that the work he has done through WikiLeaks has meaning for people all over the world also give him the strength to carry on. I fight for him because he is my brother, but everyone else is fighting for him because of the meaning that his work has brought.
This activism is keeping him going, is that the reason why you worked on the film Ithaka, which you produced?
Yes, to tell a different side of the story, so viewers can get to know Julian in a different way, through these people who are so close to him. Because he was taken away from us, taken away from everybody, dehumanised, demonised. It was really reclaiming the character from these people who have spent all these years smearing him and hiding him from us. It is really taking control of that story, and doing it in an emotional way, through Stella and John and their fight to free him. We have tried to engage with people in an emotional way: a father fighting for his son, which father wouldn’t? We hope that by engaging with people in some emotional journey with Stella and John we will open their hearts, but also their minds on what the reality actually is in his persecution.
In Italy there is a large mobilisation in support of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, but two major Film Festivals, Rome and Turin, didn’t accept Ithaka for screening. Did you expect that?
We came up against that sort of barrier all over the place. They exist throughout the entire film world, whether they are government funding bodies or Netflix, or Festivals, they stop projects that don’t fit the current political narrative. But there are good people in those organisations, and every time we discover someone willing to risk something, to risk their careers for the principle that is at stake.
Last week five top media outlets – the New York Times, the Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El País – asked the Biden administration to drop the charges against Julian Assange. Are you optimistic?
If I didn’t think I would win, I wouldn’t do this. I have faith, absolute faith, that we will win. What we are seeing is a domino effect and the domino is not getting smaller: it is getting bigger and bigger. These five global news outlets – how hard is it to get them all together sharing a statement, particularly a statement saying that the endless legal prosecution against Julian should be stopped? This is huge and unprecedented. We’ve seen [the WikiLeaks journalists] Kristinn Hrafnsson and Joseph Farrell meet with the new president of Brazil. They met with the president of Colombia the day before. They are doing fabulous work. My father and I went to meet the president of Mexico. So we’ve got these media organisations, we have world leaders, we’ve got basically every single press freedom and human rights organisation around the world.
What would be the first thing you would do with your brother if and when he is free?
I’m sure Stella wants to get her hands on him first. I would just love to see them all together. All their lives his kids have only known him in prison. To be able to come out and take them to the park. That would be enough for me.
ITALIAN VERSION – “Assange trattato da demonio. E il mio film adesso fa paura”
LISTEN – Perché il Potere Segreto vuole distruggere Assange?