Free Gonzalo Lira!

The Crime of Journalism

When American reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia on March 29th, it was front-page news all over America. Never mind that Gershkovich was doing some fairly iffy ‘research’ on Russian defense production - this was a terrible affront to freedom of the press, we were told.

It was quite a different story last week when another American journalist, Gonzalo Lira, was arrested by Ukraine’s secret police and charged with distributing pro-Russian propaganda. The vast majority of the US mainstream media simply ignored the story.

There were probably three main reasons why Gonzalo Lira’s arrest didn’t make the news:

First, the US Government didn’t lodge a complaint. (Hell, they probably ordered his arrest!)

Second, Lira has been devastatingly eloquent in his opposition to US foreign policy.

And finally, when the official narrative is that Ukraine is an open democracy, the bad optics of Ukraine’s secret police arresting an American journalist make it verboten as content.

The first Gonzalo Lira video I saw was posted from Kiev in the earliest days of the war. In that Youtube video, Gonzalo is walking around the streets of Kiev, with the sound of gunfire in the background. He says: “You hear that gunfire? Russian troops are nowhere near here. What you’re hearing is the sound of Ukraine’s criminal gangs settling old scores, now that they’ve been let out of jail and given guns by the Government.”

I had two immediate reactions. First, that this guy really tells it like it is. And second, that he was either very brave, or bat-shit crazy. Or perhaps both.

I’ve watched Gonzalo fairly regularly in the intervening fourteen months, and both impressions have only grown stronger. The man has some rough edges, but it’s hard not to like him.

Some basic biographical information is relevant here.

Lira was born in California of Chilean parents in 1968. He went to high school in Chile and university in the US. Lira has written three novels and directed two films. (Miramix reportedly paid Lira $650,000 for the rights to turn his novel Acrobat into a movie.)

Several years ago he married a Ukrainian women. They had two children and moved to Ukraine.

Lira had a front row seat on the rise of Ukraine’s neo-Nazis, and the faux-truce of the Minsk Accords that neither Ukraine nor the NATO countries had any intention of honouring.

Especially in his early videos, it is clear that Lira has lived in Ukraine long enough to develop a deep affection for both the country and its people. It’s not as though he holds ordinary Ukrainians blameless for what has happened to Ukraine, but he sees them as more sinned against than sinning, if I may borrow Shakespeare’s words.

Over the past 14 months of watching Lira’s video’s I can’t help but have the impression of a man transfixed as he watches a slow-moving train wreck. He knows he should turn away, but he can’t help himself; he has to watch.

Lira’s early videos were an inside look at everyday life in Kharkiv as the war raged nearby. From time to time he would comment on what he saw happening in the war, in Ukraine, and global geopolitics.

Nine months ago, Lira began organizing a series of Roundtables where he talked extensively with a who’s who of the alternate voices on the Ukraine conflict. Those 56 Roundtables contain a wealth of data on the progress of the war, and on global geopolitics. (Their biggest drawback is they tend to be long!)

Six months ago, Lira returned to making short personal videos on a Youtube channel called Gonzalo Lira - Again. He smokes as he looks into the camera, and lays out the truth of what’s been happening in Ukraine in excruciating detail. He’s smart, well-informed, and has a wicked sense of humour. If you’ve never seen one of Lira’s videos, here’s a good example of his style, as he talks about the depopulation of Ukraine.

The devastation and destruction happening in Ukraine clearly causes him great pain and distress, particularly the senseless deaths of hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainian soldiers. Those who would want to paint Lira as pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine can’t have watched his videos.

I strongly suspect that Gonzalo Lira could have found a way to flee Ukraine if he had chosen to do so, that he has stayed out of a felt need to be a witness. He wants the world to understand what has been done to Ukraine, regardless of what it costs him personally.

Though there’s no hope of the American Government pushing for Lira’s release, if you know of any Chileans who might have an influence on their Government, please intercede on Gonzalo’s behalf. His best shot at freedom is if the Ukrainians deport him to avoid a diplomatic incident with Chile.

Coming so soon after the firing of Tucker Carlson, it is getting harder and harder to pretend that America still has a free press worth mentioning.

The upcoming trial of Julian Assange, for the ‘crime’ of exposing American war crimes in Iraq, will not make journalists feel any safer.

I suppose the obedient hacks who work in America’s mainstream media can relax though. No-one is likely to accuse to accuse them of the crime of journalism.

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PS: Lira’s wife and children are not in Ukraine.