Reconnecting Assange

Electronic jammers have been placed inside the Ecuador embassy in London to prevent Julian Assange having access to social media, according to news.com.au and RT.com.

Assange has also been refused visitors.

The move was precipitated by an article in Ecuador's media about a tweet by Assange.

In 1940 the elected president of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, was captured by the Gestapo, at the request of Spain, delivered to them and executed. Today, German police have arrested the elected president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, at the request of Spain, to be extradited.

— Julian Assange ⌛ (@JulianAssange) March 26, 2018

Assange was asked to remove the tweet, but refused. He was then told that he would be disconnected from the outside world, 'by order of the president'.

The Ecuador government:

The measure was adopted due to Assange not complying with a written promise which he made with the government in late 2017, by which he was obliged not to send messages which entailed interference in relation to other states.

But WikiLeaks sources said there is no such agreement.

Former Greek minister Yanis Varoufakis and musician Brian Eno:

Only extraordinary pressure from the US and the Spanish governments can explain why Ecuador's authorities should have taken such appalling steps in isolating Julian.

The jammers cause some disruption for embassy staff, who can no longer use their mobile phones due to the communication blackout.

Puigdemont was arrested last week at the request of the Spanish government as he was returning from Finland to Belgium, where he was living in self-imposed exile.

Reconnecting Assange

A group of intellectuals and artists, headed by Noam Chomsky and Oliver Stone, have signed an open letter demanding Ecuador restore Assange's Internet access, allow him visits, and respect his right to freedom of expression, as reported by teleSUR.

If it was ever clear that the case of Julian Assange was never just a legal case, but a struggle for the protection of basic human rights, it is now.

The full list of signatories:

Pamela Anderson, Jacob Appelbaum, Renata Avila, Sally Burch, Alicia Castro, Naomi Colvin, Noam Chomsky, Brian Eno, Joseph Farrell, Teresa Forcades, Chris Hedges, Srećko Horvat, Jean Michel Jarre, John Kiriakou, Lauri Love, Ray McGovern, John Pilger, Angela Richter, Saskia Sassen, Oliver Stone, Vaughan Smith, Yanis Varoufakis, Natalia Viana, Vivienne Westwood, Slavoj Žižek.

Social media use the tags '#ReconnectJulian' or '#ReconnectAssange'.