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Pop star Lady Gaga visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange this week at the Ecuadorean embassy while in London, meeting with him for a reported five hours.
Perhaps Lady Gaga understands some things that seem to elude the majority of the media: Assange’s importance as a defender of freedom of the press and freedom of information.
Assange remains at the embassy while the Ecuadorean government attempts to negotiate a solution to the stand off with Swedish authorities – who refuse to guarantee Assange would not be extradited from Sweden to the U.S., to face possible charges under the Espionage Act, despite appeals from the likes of Amnesty International – and the U.K. – which refuses to guarantee Assange safe passage.
Gaga dressed as a witch, in a possible reference to the “witch-hunt” against Assange, which Assange denounced in an August speech from the embassy.