WikiLeaks Reports It Has Been ‘Banned’ From UN Agency’s Conference on WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks Reports It Has Been ‘Banned’ From UN Agency’s Conference on WikiLeaks:

The media organization WikiLeaks reports a conference to be held at the headquarters of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris has not invited any speakers affiliated with WikiLeaks to speak at the event that is scheduled to take place February 16 and 17.

A statement on WikiLeaks’ website says the organization “denounces” UNESCO for holding a “large two-day conference” that “US organizers have stacked” with “WikiLeaks opponents.” The statement condemns the conference organizers for “blocking all speakers from WikiLeaks and stating it chose not to invite anyone associated or affiliated with WikiLeaks because they have the “right to give voice to speakers” that they want speaking at the event.

The organization’s founder, Julian Assange, reacted to the planned conference.

UNESCO has made itself an international human rights joke. To use “freedom of expression” to censor WikiLeaks from a conference about WikiLeaks is an Orwellian absurdity beyond words. This is an intolerable abuse of UNESCO’s Constitution. It’s time to occupy UNESCO.

Assange called for an investigation, suggesting the US had engaged in a “cold-war style power-play” that made the conference illegitimate.

[firedoglake/Kevin Gosztola/15 Feb 2012]