Afgelopen week besloot de EU, de censuur task force ‘strategische communicatie’, ingesteld door de niet democratisch gekozen ‘Europese’ Commissie, een aanzienlijk groter budget uit de door ons opgebrachte belasting toe te bedelen. Het is natuurlijk niet de bedoeling dat u de waarheid hoort over Oekraïne of Syrië en dat is een lieve cent waard, ‘zoals u begrijpt….’
Ofwel Rusland moet en zal zwartgemaakt worden, zoals gezegd, zelfs met uw belastinggeld……. Een verdere vervolmaking van 1984 (Orwell)…….
Vanmorgen ontving ik het volgende artikel van Information Clearing House (onder het artikel kan u klikken voor een ‘Dutch’ vertaling, dit neemt wel wat tijd in beslag):
EU
Votes For Citizens To Fund Their Own Brainwashing
By
Finian Cunningham
November
27, 2016 “Information
Clearing House”
–
“RT“* – A fledgling group set up by the European Commission to
allegedly counteract “Russian propaganda” is to be expanded with
more public cash and resources. European citizens will be funding
mechanisms inducing their own ignorance and misinformation.
This
week, the European Parliament in Strasbourg voted by
a dubious majority for a cash injection to expand the work of a media
watchdog aimed at “debunking
Russian propaganda.”
The
little-known media group, reportedly comprising 11 “diplomats,” was
established a year ago by the all-powerful, but unelected European
Commission. The media unit has, therefore, no electoral mandate. It
is potentially holding sway over how 500 million EU citizens will be
able in the future to access news and public information.
In
particular, it is evident the said EU media program is motivated by
an extreme Russophobia bias. Working in tandem with this media
watchdog is another coterie of seven parliamentarians headed by
the rabidly anti-Russian Polish MEP Anna Fotyga. The
57-year-old member of
the right-wing Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe
within the EU Parliament has been regularly accusing Russia
of “aggression” in
Ukraine and toward Europe generally.
Fotyga’s
self-appointed media group, dominated by eastern European
anti-Russian interests, produced a report earlier
this year entitled “EU
strategic communications with a view to counteracting propaganda.” It
makes for hysterical reading accusing Russian news networks RT and
Sputnik of being Kremlin propaganda tools for sowing division and
discord among EU member states.
The
report states: “The
Russian government is employing a wide range of tools and
instruments, such as think-tanks […], multilingual TV stations
(e.g. Russia Today), pseudo-news agencies and multimedia services
(e.g. Sputnik) […], social media and internet trolls, to challenge
democratic values, divide Europe, gather domestic support and create
the perception of failed states in the EU’s eastern neighborhood.”
It
was largely this tendentious “study” that
formed the basis for the European Parliament’s resolution this week
to expand funding for the media program to “debunk
Russian propaganda.”
How
much new money is being disbursed to the media watchdog is not clear.
But ultimately it will be funded by EU citizens whose taxes
underwrite member governments’ financial contributions to the
Brussels-based 28-nation bloc.
Notably,
the EU Parliament vote this week was far from convincing. Some 304
MEPs voted for extra funding to the“anti-Russian
propaganda” group,
while 179 MEPs voted against. A further 208 parliamentarians
abstained. That suggests widespread apprehension among lawmakers
about the function and credibility of “debunking
Russian propaganda.”
So,
here we have an outcome whereby a minuscule group of unelected
faceless bureaucrats and ideologically driven politicians, who
evidently have an ax to grind against Russia, are able to shape a
vital area of foreign policy for the entire EU bloc and furthermore
to significantly impinge on the public’s right to access
information freely.
The
charges of “Russian
state-sponsored propaganda” have
been inflamed with recent claims by
Western leaders like US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel that “fake news” is undermining Western democracy.
These claims have in turn followed months of reports from various
NATO-linked think-tanks which have allege that
Russian news services are fronts for Kremlin-inspired disinformation.
Political
pressure is now being brought to bear on internet and social media
providers, such as Google and Facebook, to ban “fake
news” from
their networks. Germany’s Merkel has even declared this
week that she intends introducing legislation that will force
internet service companies to “regulate
fake news.”
Europe
enters new Dark Age with crackdown on Russia media (Op-Edge by Robert
Bridge)https://t.co/NoZHsBgCfy
—
RT
(@RT_com) November
26, 2016
It
is not clear how far this development will go. Western-based internet
companies may yield and impose blanket censorship. Another question
is what are the limits on designating which information and sources
are considered “fake”?
The
political atmosphere of Russophobia being whipped up by Western
leaders, NATO-connected think-tanks and now EU parliamentarians –
and the actual fingering of Russian news services like RT and Sputnik
as “illegitimate
sources” –
is all setting the stage for the banning of Russian media.
In
reports this week, the EU media watchdog that is being expanded
to “counter
Russian propaganda” said that
it would be employing ways of “alerting
internet users to false information.” Presumably,
that involves hiring online commentators (trolls) who will add
disparaging comments to news articles deemed to be Kremlin
propaganda. Apparently, there are no moves yet to demand that
internet providers actually delete content. But that full-blown
censorship would seem to be only a short step away, given the
relentless anti-Russian atmosphere and claims by Western leaders
of “fake
news” eroding
democracy.
The
insidious nature of what is unfolding is illustrated by the alleged
incident of Belgian NATO fighter jets bombing Syria last month. On
October 18, the village of Hassadjek in Aleppo was reportedly hit by
air strikes that killed six civilians, according to local sources.
Several
news services, including Reuters, subsequently carried reports in
which Russia’s Ministry of Defense accused Belgium of carrying out
the strikes as part of the US-led coalition purportedly bombing Syria
to combat jihadi terror groups.
The
Russian information appeared to be substantive, providing flight and
radar data that reportedly identified the Belgian warplanes.
Belgium’s ambassador was summoned in Moscow to explain why the
Belgian government appeared to be stonewalling with denials that its
air force was involved in the deadly attack.
Disturbingly,
the news reports of the alleged Belgian air strike on the Aleppo
countryside last month are described as
an example of “fake
news” by
the EU media watchdog during this week’s parliamentary vote to
endorse more funding for the unit.
This
has huge sinister implications. Any news report or analysis – no
matter how substantive or factual – that happens to offend the
political sensibilities and reputation of EU governments are thus
liable to be labeled “fake.” And
therefore subject to censorship.
What
about reports on Western governments supplying jihadi terror groups
with weapons? Or reports on how Western media are colluding with
terrorist propaganda fronts like the White Helmets to fabricate
allegations of Russian violations in the liberation of besieged
Syrian city Aleppo?
All
such reports can be verified and documented. But because they happen
to offend official Western claims about their involvement in Syria,
then such “offending” reports
can be merely dismissed as “Russian
propaganda.”
This
marks an audacious license by European and American authorities to
grant themselves immunity from media criticism and scrutiny –
simply by invoking a subjective, politicized claim that Russian news
is “fake” and“propagandistic.”
Meanwhile,
this week Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was being hosted in
Brussels by EU leaders during which he warned: “The
European Union is under very severe attack from Russia.”
There
is no hint of awareness among European media outlets and the EU’s
own media watchdogs that Poroshenko’s tedious tirades constitute a
glaring case of “fake
news.”
Dystopian
future beckons in which EU citizens are obligated to fund unelected
media controllers who will deprive them of critical news and
information, while at the same time sluicing citizens with the most
gratuitous anti-Russia propaganda.
No
wonder a growing number of citizens are becoming alienated from the
EU’s oligarchic rule. It is acting like a tyranny that needs to be
torn asunder.
Click
for Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish, French,
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* Neem aan dat ‘RT’ een vergissing is, bedoeld wordt: EU’s ‘strategische communicatie’ task force.
Zie ook: ‘Washington Post Disgracefully Promotes a McCarthyite Blacklist From a New, Hidden, and Very Shady Group‘ (een artikel van Ben Norton en Glenn Greenwald, met dezelfde mogelijkheid tot vertaling)
Klik voor meer berichten n.a.v. het bovenstaande, op één van de labels, die u onder dit bericht terug kan vinden, dit geldt niet voor de labels: Fotyga, RT (= Russia Today) en Sputnik.