More recently, in February this year, Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak, 27, together with his innocent partner, were gunned down in his home. At the time he was working on a story on the links between EU money, bent Slovak businessmen, and the Prime Minister's assistant's links to corruption and a mafia crime figure.
And last month in Bulgaria Victoria Marinova ws found murdered in Ruse. She had been working on a story about corruption involving EU funds. The second Bulgarian journalist murdered in a decade, the gunning down in Sofia of radio presenter Bobi Tsankov in 2010 being a grisly precursor.
In 2010 Investigative journalist Sokratis Giolias was gunned down in Athens. And just over a year ago, in October 2017, Daphne Caruana Galizia was blown apart by a mafia car bomb in Malta. A 53 year old mother of three, her investigations into political and EU corruption on the island and the links between EU funding and crime figures offended scores of bent Maltese politicians. In Poland in 2015 Investigative journalist Łukasz Masiak was beaten to death in Mlawa.
Dead journalists make the news. But it's reasonable to suppose that for every stubborn and tenacious reporter who refused to be intimidated, a score or more will have been cowed into silence by a bullet in the post, a beating, their family or children approached, their windows broken, their cars dripping in bloody paint.
The EU uses money taken from Europe's taxpayers to buy political loyalty and to corrupt politicians across Europe, under the pretence of aid and development. But building up a cabal of loyal bent politicians comes at a price - they frequently come attached to organised crime gangs. And although the EU would rather play down the links between EU favour and funding and the mafias, at times the links are so blatant, the passage of cash from EU taxpayer purses to mafia pockets so conspicuous, that even the EU are forced to act;
In an unprecedented move, the EU has withheld funds from new member Bulgaria because the ineffective measures it’s taken against organized crime. Killings, frauds and corruption all seem to go unprosecuted and unpunished. The European Union’s (EU) dramatic action in suspending aid to Bulgaria came after ample warnings that mere commitment to judicial reform was not enough.But of course the EU can't act too harshly; the foul and noisome compact between the EU, Europe's criminal mobs and her bent politicians is vital to Berlaymont's interests. And a carpet of journalists' corpses is the cost.
6 comments:
The efforts of some reporters to highlight these issues is to be lauded and their demise rightly condemned but we have yet to see any action taken against the news outlets themselves for failing to highlight even the basic forms of corruption that we know happen each and every day.
The MSM are largely under the control of people who are loyal to those that don't have the public's interests at heart and despite these brave reporters getting their stories it is noticeable that they don't appear in the print media as much as the independent electronic (internet) media instead.
There is so much bias and (I'd claim) outright deception across the MSM as a whole that it has become almost impossible to discern fact from fiction. Even vanilla issues such as Brexit are distorted by media-ownership leanings and the BBC - a taxpayer funded DISGRACE - have their own agenda. The BBC are not alone of course, Trump oft highlights CNN etc for their biases.
Brave reporters are few and far between but they are betrayed by those that purport to lead the Fourth Estate and with politicians and clergy equally attacking us 'commoners' and what we have legitimately voted for (or against) there is no such thing as justice any more.
Those reporters achieved nothing, changed nothing and died for nothing.
It's time those that betray such brave men and women are themselves brought to account.
Our country is often lauded for it's 'free press' - Brexit showed just how 'free' our press actually is. Disgraceful!
"The EU uses money taken from Europe's taxpayers to buy political loyalty and to corrupt politicians across Europe, under the pretence of aid and development. "
I rather expect that this happens at national levels of government too... but at least there's a chance that you can vote them out. It does leave a politicised Civil Service and various 'funded' Quangos in place though.
Perhaps 'draining the swamp' is needed far more than most people are willing to consider. Perhaps Trump was right (gasp).
Raedwald, An excellent post. Thank you. The EU really is rotten. How many of the influential politicians in the UK who are desperate to promote the EU are bought and paid for, or blackmailed, or both? Quite a lot I would suspect. For the simple fact is that it is perfectly possible for any nation to be independent of the EU, as evidenced by the rest of the world. So something has to explain the hysterical grief at the possibility of the UK being independent.
Ha. The proof of wealth to begin in the house's would be a good start.
Just a thought....How can a labour politician accrue 2 million?
Bliar, Mandelbum. et all, could if dogmatism is incorporated, expose not just the UK but the whole corrupt system.
Bliar knows he could become stateless...
Brilliant Radders,just brilliant.
Love the blog about insects.
Stay safe.
On 22nd September three Greek journalists, The publisher of the newspaper 'Fileleftheros', Thanasis Mavridis, its director and editor-in-chief Panayiotis Lampsias and political desk editor Katerina Galanou, were arrested and detained in Athens, after being accused of defamation by the Defence Minister, Pavlos Kammenos, some of whose business associates were being investigated by the newspaper for suspected fraud involving EU refugee funds.
So if anything... untoward should happen to any of those three... We know where to look. (Btw, defamation is a tried and tested tool of political reprisal in Greece, as merely the accusation alone - by anyone - results in immediate arrest and detention.)
Post a Comment