Here’s the shocking reason your Tory government is more guilty of attacking press freedom than Extinction Rebellion
Dictator: despotic governments attack press freedom – and they do it quietly, while claiming to be doing the exact opposite. That’s exactly what your Boris Johnson-led government has done – and why this image is appropriate.
So much for Boris Johnson’s (and Priti Patel’s) comments about the Extinction Rebellion blockade for Rupert Murdoch’s print works being an attack on the ‘free press’.
On the day before they were making these attacks, the Council of Europe – that the UK founded – issued a formal warning that the Conservative government is a threat to the freedom of the press:
The Council of Europe issued the Level 2 “media freedom alert” after Ministry of Defence press officers refused to deal with Declassified UK, a website focusing on foreign and defence policy stories.
The new alert, issued by the organisation on Friday, was classified by the watchdog as an “act having a chilling effect on media freedom” and put under the “state” category – because the British state was the source of the threat.
It seems the only reason the government was refusing to comment to Declassified is that the Tories were retaliating against previous reporting that was critical of the government’s use of its armed forces.
Writing to urge the government into a rethink, the International Press Institute stated:
“It goes without saying that the exclusion of a media publication by a government ministry due to its investigative reporting would undermine press freedom and set a worrying precedent for other journalists whose job it is to report in the public interest on the British military. Criticism should be no reason to discriminate against a media publication.
“In contrast, tough journalism by outlets such as Declassified UK on matters such as the UK’s foreign and military affairs, uncomfortable though it often may be for those in power, is crucial for a transparent and functioning democracy.”
So your Tory government had deliberately and silently sabotaged the workings of “transparent and functioning democracy” by restricting press freedom on the day before it accused XR of the same thing with a public and popular demonstration.
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Fascist dictator lardy boris and his minions all utter lies and claim this ‘Extinction Rebellion blockade at Murdoch’s propaganda print works is an ‘attack on the free press!’ What a joke!!! ‘Free press?’ It doesn’t exist concerning the fake national newspapers because they are all owned by greedy men shoring up the fascist tories!
That image of dictator lardy fascist boris is spot on – he’s learned how easy it was for the Nazis to fool women and men and now fascist boris and his fascist tory bros are doing the same to us peasants!