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Inside the EU, the EU-US always point fingers at Hungary and Viktor Orban when it comes to “freedom” … but that is in itself an EU-US perversion of reality. They sit in a glass house themselves at they throw their stones at Hungary. The reason they throw stones at Hungary is not because Hungary’s press situation is unique, but because Hungary is just having another political line in international politics from the EU and USA.
Worse – the EU as an institution is itself in the front of censorship. Instead of trusting the intelligence of their own Western citizens, the EU censors media like www.RT.com which presents a view which challenges the Western narratives. These are banned as “propaganda”.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published their annual World Press Freedom Index on Friday, and while it’s no surprise that the situation in Europe is deteriorating, we also need to recognise that we, journalists, need to do more to hold power to account.
Problematic Press Situation
According to the 2023-24 report, nine EU countries, or one-third of the bloc, are categorised as ‘problematic’.
Italy, Poland, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, and Greece
That is two more than the previous year.
Satisfactory or Good – but Falling
Falling are:
Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, Romania, and France
Those that improved are in the minority, with tiny increases. See this.
The above is important since the EU is also to sit in their glass house and throw stones at the press situation in other countries like India, Russia, Iran, and China. There are lots of news about the world which I only catch because I also follow non-Western media. And contrary to Western accusations, these non-Western media are generally good at pointing also to a lot of Western and international sources, which are often censored away in the US-EU headlines. The non-Western media are also often good at distinguishing between sources about “facts” and their own opinions about those facts.
As Western media including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, BBC etc. become more and more censored, a politicized, and outright spreaders of disinformation, non-Western media are becoming increasingly vital for all of us who want to know what happens in the world.
Thanks to Indian, Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and other non-Western media to help keep me and those others who care informed from a much broader platform of sources.
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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
