I'll be preaching to the choir on this, and if you ain't in the choir by now, all I can do is express my sympathies over the terrible head injury you must have suffered:
This is the first time that the Commission has ventured into the area of sponsoring investigative journalism. The action was prompted by a European Parliament amendment to the 2010 Budget of the European Union, and is in itself a recognition of the state of the media industry today. The Commission’s stated raison d’etre is that:
- Independent scrutiny of public affairs enables citizens to be properly informed of conduct in public life, and can therefore inform their participation in democratic processes.
- Much of the news media no longer invests in traditional journalistic scrutiny, due to failing economic conditions.
- Some media, particularly in broadcasting and online journalism, lack a culture of investigative journalism. There is also a lack of tradition of this type of journalism in some parts of Europe.
- Cross-border investigative journalism, in which journalists from different countries work together on issues of common public interest, is almost unknown.
It goes without saying that no investigation the massive endemic corruption within the EU institutions and the largesse they bestow will be tolerated. It is also clear that this is yet another example of the growing power and arrogance of the Enemy in Brussels.
Hat tip: Goodnight Vienna
6 comments:
Thanks for the h/t, TT, and you're right: there is a sense that we're blogging to the converted but there'll always be someone looking for info who stumbles across a blog and has an epiphany. We need to increase the size and strength of 'the choir' :-)
The bigger the better, indeed. It was partly not wanting to bother explaining why exactly it strikes me as so sinister that made me frame it as I did.
What enrages me is the idea that this has something to do with 'independent scrutiny'. I'd laugh, but I have to keep a grip.
Takes a lot of bricks to build a house mate. Bloggers are always ahead of the media; a more reliable source and, more critical of anything they get wrong and are always the first to apologise.
Honourable people, you is. Cheers.
Steve
In a nutshell any news story has to go through (tweeked)by the EU ministry of propaganda first.
These people really are BAD NEWS.
Pun intended .
Nothing new in that, Trooper. Sad but nothing new in it.
Steve, your support is acknowledged.
Anon, I think they'd like to have such a control, but in the meantime they're trying to buy up journalists, and consolidate the legislation to muzzle critical coverage (maybe like in France, where they have something like a sedition law).
James, it's a new wart on the beast's nose. It keeps getting uglier.
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