Erstellt am: 21. 12. 2012 - 15:15 Uhr

A Unique Moral Code

Reality Check: Julian Assange`s balcony address, an eyewitness in Gaza, the Mensdorff-Pouilly trial, geek treats for 2013 and the Grimm Brothers.

Julian Assange, wanted by police in Sweden to answer questions about rape and sexual assault, appeared on the narrow balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London last night and gave a haranguing address about global free speech. His words were well received by 200 cheering supporters, for whom he is an anti-establishment icon and were lapped up by representatives of the world`s media for whom he is one of the most theatrical and divisive characters on the world stage.

"Six months ago - 185 days ago - I entered this building. It has become my home, my office and my refuge," he told the rain-dampened crowd, before promising that his website will release a million more files in 2013. He said there were "documents that affect every country in the world."

He also raised a big cheer when he name-checked Bradley Manning, the former US soldier and alleged source of Wikileaks' most striking revelations who is currently being held in shockingly harsh conditions in a US military detention centre:

EPA/Andy Rain

Personally, in all sympathy with Manning and without wanting to denigrate the positive impact that some of the Wikileaks releases have had on our understanding of how our militaries really operate, I find Assange`s rockstar sanctimony more than a little jarring:

His host Ecuador, which he last night praised for its "principled stance", sentenced three directors and a former columnist of El Universo newspaper to three years in prison for "libel" last year after the paper had had the temerity to criticise President Rafael Correa. It was a move that Amnesty International said "will discourage journalists from engaging in legitimate criticism of the government." From inside the embassy Assange has been working with Russian media with close links to authoritarian Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Are these really the right bed-fellows for a champion of free speech?

"Julian Assange tends to operate within his own moral framework," says our media analyst Charlie Beckett of the Polis think tank. After hosting personalities such as Lady Gaga in his diplomatic hideout, Assange has become "a bit of a celebrity himself" says Beckett.

Gaza Eyewitness Videos

Today I spoke to British video-maker Harry Fear who has been providing an eye-witness account of life in Gaza. He was there in the aftermath of the recent 8 day war between Hamas militants and the Israeli military in which dozens of Palestinians civilians in Gaza were killed by Israeli air attacks.

The videos are angry and emotive but with titles such as "Martyred in Gaza - a report looking at Israel`s weekend persecution of the Gaza strip" many people seem them as works of propaganda rather than journalism.

Fear told me that he was addressing a "pre-existing deficit". He feels that main stream media is overly focussed on the Israeli point of view and that there is an "under-representation of the Palestinian narrative". He says he is trying "to give the Palestinians their voices and faces back".

Harry Fear appeared this afternoon at the "Eyes on Gaza" workshop at Vienna University which also featured former UN Human Rights envoy Manfred Nowak.

Mensdorff-Pouilly trial

Thousands of euros in cash handed over in envelopes, a network of off-shore companies and bank accounts, a British spy with the nickname "The White Sultan". It sounds like the making of a John Grisham novel or a Hollywood movie, or both, but these are some of the ingredients in the narrative surrounding Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly. His trial on charges of money-laundering and perjury started last week in Vienna. So far the court has heard opening statements and the testimony of the first witness, an acquaintance of Mensdorff-Pouilly and friend of his co-accused. We talk to Martin Staudinger from Profil, who has been following proceedings at the trial:

Technology in 2013

This week Reality Check has been looking ahead to 2013 and talking to some of our regular experts to get a feel for some of the big issues in the coming year. As we head into the Christmas break, we’re looking at what could be on the horizon when it comes to consumer technology. Dave Dempsey tells us why virtual reality might, after flopping in the ‘90s, finally become a mainstream reality, and how 3D printing is going to become more affordable.

Grimm Brothers

And finally we looked forward to tomorrow`s special show on the Grimm brothers who used their linguistic skills to gather European folklore and create stories that still resonate and are more popular than ever 200 years after they were first published.

Celebrating the bicentennial anniversary of the politically-charged, sociologically-poignant, and historically-relevant stories as written by the Brothers Grimm, FM4 offers a very special holiday-season story-hour-"Once Upon a Time: A Grimm Reality Check", as of 12 midday this Saturday and with Riem Higazi.