Courage Foundation

The Courage Foundation is a trust for fundraising the legal defence of individuals such as whistleblowers and journalists.

Founded on August 9, 2013, as the Journalistic Source Protection Defence Fund by Gavin MacFadyen, Barbora Bukovska and Julian Assange[1][2] it later rebranded in June 2014.[3]

WikiLeaks section editor Sarah Harrison served as acting director from 2014[4] until April 2017, when WikiLeaks became a Courage beneficiary and Naomi Colvin began serving as director.[5] The trust advisers include Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, former NSA executive Thomas Drake, former MI5 British intelligence officer and whistleblower Annie Machon, Vice President of the Wau Holland Foundation Andy Müller-Maguhn, Guatemala human rights lawyer Renata Ávila, and Pussy Riot.[6]

The Courage Foundation supports Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden (NSA whistleblower), Jeremy Hammond (Stratfor hacktivist), Matt DeHart,[7] Lauri Love and Chelsea Manning.

The Courage trustees are Susan Benn, and John Pilger.[2] Renata Ávila was a trustee before retiring in April 2018[2][8] and Dame Vivienne Westwood was a trustee before she died.[2]

In November 2022, the Courage Foundations website went offline.[9][10]

Controversy

In 2018, three of the trustees decided to remove Barrett Brown from the Courage Foundation's beneficiary list over "nasty adversarial remarks" he had made about Julian Assange, and a decision was made to prioritise the case of Wikileaks over all other beneficiaries. Courage trustee Susan Benn told Brown that Courage would no longer help him, writing in an email that "You have made a number of hostile and denigrating statements about other Courage beneficiaries who are facing grave legal and personal risks. Courage expects solidarity and mutual aid from its beneficiaries, especially when those among you face extreme uncertainty and danger."[8][11][12]

In response, Courage Foundation Director Naomi Colvin quit in protest and Brown alleged that he had only been given about $3,500 out of the total $14,000 that had been donated to Courage for him.[8][11][12][13] Renata Ávila called Brown's comments "disloyal and unacceptable."[8]

References
  1. "FAQs | Courage Foundation". Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  2. "Courage announces new board of trustees - Courage Foundation". couragefound.org.
  3. Frediani, Carola (February 11, 2014). "Snowden and the War On Whistleblowers: An Interview With Annie Machon". Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  4. "Launch of Courage and Snowden Campaign in Berlin, Wednesday 11th June". Courage Foundation. June 9, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  5. "Courage announces new director Naomi Colvin". Courage Foundation. April 4, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  6. Addley, Esther (November 18, 2014). "Pussy Riot members join whistleblower foundation backed by Julian Assange". Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  7. Raincoaster (March 3, 2015). "Matt DeHart is Named Beneficiary of the Courage Foundation". Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  8. Avila, Renata (January 27, 2019). "Clarifying a statement about Courage Foundation and WikiLeaks". Medium. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  9. "WikiLeaks' Website Is Falling Apart". Gizmodo. November 22, 2022. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
  10. Thalen, Mikael (November 22, 2022). "Millions of documents disappear from WikiLeaks as site completely breaks down". The Daily Dot. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
  11. Ackerman, Spencer (August 13, 2018). "Julian Assange Went After a Former Ally. It Backfired Epically". The Daily Beast. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  12. Corfield, Gareth. "Whistleblower org chief quits over Assange critic boot demand". www.theregister.com. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  13. Colvin, Naomi (August 13, 2018). "Rather unfortunately, I have been obliged to resign from Courage. An explanation". Medium. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
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