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10. 04. 2014

BOOK BY JULIAN ASSANGE PROMOTED IN BELGRADE

10. 04. 2014 (Beta, Politika) - Proceeds from sales of the book "Cypherpunks" will be paid into a fund to help families of killed journalists. Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website warned at the promotion of his book "Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet," held yesterday in Belgrade, that Internet is the largest potential enslaver of mankind.

"Never have all states simultaneously been under such a predominant influence. However, the book talks about how the Internet can be used against these global trends," said Assange in a video message featured at the promotion. The book "Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet", was created through his interviews with the three leading virtual activists, as Assange said, who have been fighting against technological totalitarianism for years.

The term "Cypherpunks" denotes activists who advocate widespread use of encrypted electronic communications, which, in their opinion, is one of the ways to protect privacy. The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Šabić said that the global surveillance system nowadays exceeds mere interception of communications and it represents total surveillance the excuse for which cannot possibly be found.

Editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper "Politika" Ljiljana Smajlović said that the most interesting part of the book is when Assange explains that in the West there is erasing of history, which represents censorship after publishing. The chief editor of daily "Danas" Zoran Panović said that Assange`s work should not be associated with "quasi left-wing activists," nor make him "a fighter for the Serbian cause." "It would be fatal for Serbia to raise him to the level of (Peter) Handke, or to what Bernard-Henri Levy represents for the Croats and Muslims," said Panović and noted that this would "contaminate the discourse" about Assange.

Uroš Balov, the owner of the "Albion Books" publishing house, announced that after "Cypherpunks" he will publish a Serbian edition of the book "When Google Met WikiLeaks". The book represents conversations of Assange with the director and founder of the Internet search engine "Google" Eric Schmidt. Balov said that it was agreed with Assange that income from the sale of the book "Cypherpunks" be paid into a fund to help the families of journalists killed by the Milošević regime, but also in NATO bombing of 1999.

THEY DO NOT BOMB "NORMAL COUNTRIES"

After showing the Assange`s video statement to the Serbian public, in which he pointed out that Serbia had been misrepresented in the media, and then attacked, the chief editor of daily "Danas" said that he hoped that "Assange will not become one of the fighters for the Serbian cause." Panović stressed that when Serbs talk about why they were bombed, they should not forget "how they got into the position to be bombed." There are also those mental illnesses of ours from which we suffer, noted Panović, adding that Americans nevertheless "have not bombed any country that is normal."