Joan Smith "Let's hear it for Our Man in Tashkent", The Independent on Sunday (4 April 2004)
• In August 2012, Smith was appearing on Newsnight when Murray identified one of the women who had accused Assange of a sexual offence. She said in response: "Why would you do that? [To presenter Gavin Esler] You see how little respect this man has for women who have made serious allegations?".
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I can say from my own dealings with Murray that he is an approachable and compassionate man, who has become a hero in Uzbekistan. Two colleagues from PEN, the writers' organisation whose Writers in Prison Committee I chair, have just returned from Tashkent full of praise for him, describing how he has become virtually the only source of assistance for desperate families whose relatives have been tortured or disappeared.

— Joan Smith on Craig Murray

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I can say from my own dealings with Murray that he is an approachable and compassionate man, who has become a hero in Uzbekistan. Two colleagues from PEN, the writers' organisation whose Writers in Prison Committee I chair, have just returned from Tashkent full of praise for him, describing how he has become virtually the only source of assistance for desperate families whose relatives have been tortured or disappeared." in the context of "Joan Smith "Let's hear it for Our Man in Tashkent", The Independent on Sunday (4 April 2004)
• In August 2012, Smith was appearing on Newsnight when Murray identified one of the women who had accused Assange of a sexual offence. She said in response: "Why would you do that? [To presenter Gavin Esler] You see how little respect this man has for women who have made serious allegations?"." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Craig Murray" (About Murray: In alphabetical order by author or source.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Joan Smith

About Joan Smith

Joan Alison Smith (born 27 August 1953) is an English novelist, journalist and human rights activist, who is a former chair of the Writers in Prison committee in the English section of International PEN. She is an advocate of gender-critical feminism.