Veteran documentary filmmaker Curtis Levy sent the following endorsement of the Socialist Equality Party’s rally in Sydney on June 17 in defence of Julian Assange. The Sydney event will demand that the Australian government act immediately to end the persecution of Julian Assange and provide him with the necessary diplomatic protection to return to Australia.

Levy has been making documentary films for over three decades. These include Sons of Namatjira (1975); Riding the Tiger, a three-part series on the Indonesian dictator Suharto; Breakout (1984); and The Queen Goes West (1988). His best-known films are the award-winning Hephzibah (1998), a sensitive exploration of the complex life of Hephzibah Menuhin, sister of acclaimed violinist Yehudi Menuhin; and The President versus David Hicks (2004), about the US military’s illegal incarceration of Australian citizen David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay.

I would like to encourage everybody who is concerned about social justice to attend the demonstration on this coming Sunday 17th June at 1p.m.

It is indeed shameful that successive Australian governments have not used their influence to persuade the UK to allow Julian Assange his freedom without fear of being extradited to the US. Our enthusiasm for following the US into a succession of unwinnable and unjust wars should not prevent us from acting to protect an Australian citizen whose only “crime” has been to seek transparency in world affairs.

Since we Australians share a Head of State with the UK, Australia is in a unique position to push for justice to be done.

I urge everybody, especially my colleagues in the media, to attend this important event.