And who's been "brewing" that war?
Posted on 05/18/2024 9:46:09 AM PDT by MeganC
The outlets include Voice of Europe, which was foiled as a Russian influence operation by Czech secret services in March.
The European Union has announced a ban on four media outlets accused of spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda and "destabilising" Ukraine's neighbouring countries.
The four blacklisted outlets - Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta - are "under the permanent direct or indirect control" of Russia and have been "instrumental" in fostering support for its illegal invasion of Ukraine, the European Council said in a statement on Friday.
"The Russian Federation has engaged in a systematic, international campaign of media and information manipulation (...) to justify and support its full-scale aggression against Ukraine, and to enhance its strategy of destabilisation of its neighbouring countries, and of the EU and its member states," the statement reads.
It also added that, "In line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the measures agreed will not prevent the targeted media outlets and their staff from carrying out activities in the EU other than broadcasting, e.g. research and interviews".
The decision was anticipated by the bloc's commissioner for values and transparency, Věra Jourová, on Wednesday when EU ambassadors greenlighted the move despite Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warning that Moscow would retaliate against Western correspondents in Moscow.
Jourová also vowed to ban Russian funding of media outlets, NGOs and political parties in the EU.
It comes just three weeks before some 370 million voters are summoned to the polls in European elections, a vote feared to be vulnerable to Russian-backed disinformation campaigns.
The bloc is on high alert for online Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining the integrity of the vote, with officials concerned the EU is deeply unprepared for new forms of foreign interference.
EU-listed media in the crosshairs Three of the targeted outlets, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta, are all partly owned or controlled by the Russian state.
But Voice of Europe is a Dutch-listed company with its official headquarters in a small village in the province of North Brabant. The outlet is at the heart of an ongoing sprawling investigation into allegations lawmakers across Europe were paid to peddle the Kremlin's propaganda.
The news company claimed to provide "uncensored news from Europe and the world" and as recently as this March held one-on-one interviews and debates with sitting MEPs broadcasted from the European Parliament in Brussels and in Strasbourg.
In late March, Czech authorities announced it had busted a Russian influence operation conducted through Voice of Europe, alleging financial transactions had been made to elected officials in the European Parliament and in national parliaments.
According to Czech media citing officials from intelligence services, the allegations involve politicians from Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Hungary.
On Thursday, German police opened an investigation into EU election hopeful Petr Bystron of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, on allegations of receiving up to €20,000 from individuals linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin to spread Kremlin propaganda.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said last month that the uncovered operation aimed to destabilise the whole of Europe, and revealed other European countries had instigated investigations as the result of Czech efforts.
Belgium has confirmed it has opened a judicial investigation given that members of the European Parliament, whose headquarters is in the Belgian capital of Brussels, are under suspicion.
“So you don’t believe in free speech.”
Not from the enemy and not when a war is brewing.
Censorship is always wrong.
Churchill didn’t ban Brits from listening to Lord Haw Haw. And we didn’t ban people from listening to Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally.
And who's been "brewing" that war?
“Censorship is always wrong.”
Russian media remains free to do their business in Russia and the EU is not blocking access to their websites.
But those Russian government agencies will no longer be allowed to operate on European soil...which reflects Russian laws prohibiting most foreign media from operating on Russian soil.
The EU is cutting these firms off from earning money in the EU and that’s another reason to put an end to these tools.
Gotcha. It’s weird how we are living in an era where state censorship has grown so large and is done openly.
At this point, no matter where you live, you cannot accept news vetted and approved by your government.
I mean nowhere. On the very face of it, the government deciding you cannot see some things is outrageously authoritarian.
Especially when you take into account “safest election ever 2020, wet market bat-soup, Hunter’s laptop was a Russian fake, Trump having women pee on his bed” etc etc.
” AfD is strongly supported by Turkic Germans who oppose both liberalism and Islamic extremism”
I had not heard that. Interesting.
Russia should ban GloboHomo outlets like the BBC, VOA, and Le Monde.
Why on earth is Europe so unprepared?
They hate The Putin for his freedom.
“Why on earth is Europe so unprepared?”
Normalcy Bias. They’ve had peace for almost eighty years and they think this is normal. They think that there will always be peace and they castigate anyone who says otherwise, like President Trump.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias
“Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings.[1] Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects.[2] The normalcy bias causes many people to prepare inadequately for natural disasters, market crashes, and calamities caused by human error. About 80% of people reportedly display normalcy bias during a disaster.[3]
The normalcy bias can manifest in response to warnings about disasters and actual catastrophes. Such events can range in scale from incidents such as traffic collisions to global catastrophic risk. The event may involve social constructionism phenomena such as loss of money in market crashes, or direct threats to continuity of life: as in natural disasters like a tsunami or violence in war.
Normalcy bias has also been called analysis paralysis, the ostrich effect,[4] and by first responders, the negative panic.[5] The opposite of normalcy bias is overreaction, or worst-case scenario bias,[6][7] in which small deviations from normality are dealt with as signals of an impending catastrophe.”
Here’s some more known Russian Propaganda sites -
Moon of Alabama
Sonar21 / Larry Johnson
Col. Douglas McGregor
Martin Armstrong
Grayzone
Simplicious 76
The Busket / The Busker
BLITZ
The Press United
Dances With Bears
UkraNews.com
Don’t fall for the lies!!
I knew about McGregor.
The Thought Police are here to "help" you.
Thanks
I think in these incredibly un-normal times people could change a little for the better and pay more attention.
But hey, it’s their choice to stick their heads in the sand as long as they take responsibility for what happens to them because of their willful ignorance.
You just keep proving what a silly little girl you are with these posts designed to generate support for Ukraine, because you just can't help yourself. Yet another nation you claim is a democracy, and they are worthy of destroying this nation in order to save their precious nation.
So, you support the thought police? Until they come for you on some other topic that you do not support. Then you will cry like the little girl are.
Now that you mention it, where have we heard that before?
Abolishing Free Speech is a crime- any which way you would like to paint it.
Anyone here old enough to remember when we condemned the Soviet Union and its satellite nations for jamming Voice of America and Radio Free Europe?
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