Vivienne Westwood goes canary for Julian Assange

Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood is taking a stand, by taking to a big bird cage.

“Julian is not exactly a whistleblower, he is the source of publishing whistleblower information. He did an amazing thing when he, in 2016, established WikiLeaks as a safe haven for whistleblowers. We need the truth about Julian Assange and here I am sort of whistleblowing the truth.” – Vivienne Westwood on GMB

Dame Vivienne Westwood spoke to today’s Good Morning Britain about protesting the extradition of Julian Assange.

Today the fashion designer has climbed into a bird cage in central London as part of a protest concerning Australian editor, publisher, and activist Assange who founded WikiLeaks in 2006.

Leaks published on the site included the Baghdad airstrike Collateral Murder video (April 2010), the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October 2010), and Cablegate (November 2010). After the 2010 leaks, the United States government launched a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks that soon, conveniently critics of the USA say, saw Sweden issue an international arrest warrant for Assange concerning alleged sexual assault claims.

During the 2016 US Democratic Party presidential primaries, WikiLeaks hosted emails sent or received by candidate Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State. The stateside Intelligence Community, as well as a Special Counsel investigation, concluded that the Russian government carried out a hacking campaign as part of broader efforts to interfere in the 2016 United States elections.

The question of whether or not Julian Assange will be extradited to the United States remains unanswered with the WikiLeaks founder waiting to face a five-day hearing on the matter this year.

Vivienne Westwood speaking to ITV’s morning show said that she was ‘a canary’ and that ‘canaries are whistleblowers.’

“I am Julian Assange, I am the canary in the cage, he has been trapped by a big net, taken out of the sun and shoved in a cage. The problem is they want to send him to America for a sentence of 175 years and stick him in a concrete block for a jail. This could happen to every journalist because it is not a crime to publish the truth.” – Vivienne Westwood speaking on GMB

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.