Western nations have used the Ukraine conflict as a pretext to destroy what was left of the freedom of speech, Sonja van den Ende says
FILE PHOTO. © Getty Images / PA / Lino Mirgeler
The EU is reportedly planning to target Russian media channels with the upcoming ninth sanctions package, freezing the assets of ANO TV-Novosti, RT’s parent company, and revoking licenses from those few outlets which still hold them within the bloc. RT spoke on the new planned broadside against Russian media with Sonja van den Ende, an independent Dutch journalist, who believes the ongoing crisis has become merely a pretext to intensify the years-long crackdown on the freedom of speech in the West.
“This is what the Western countries are doing since the start of the special military operation, even before that. Even before the Syrian war, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya,” van den Ende said.
But now it intensified a lot, and we see every day new things coming out. They clearly want to control the media, this is what they do already, and everything that is said in favor of Russia or just neutral about Russia is straight away banned everywhere.
Germany has repeatedly targeted RT and its German-language division RT DE in particular. The latest initiative in the field was floated this week by MP Andrea Lindholz, a CDU/CSU parliamentary group chair, who proposed to set up a special reporting office to tackle “Russian disinformation.”
The MP claimed the alleged “danger of Russian propaganda and disinformation in Germany should not be underestimated,” particularly given the economic troubles “when everything is getting more expensive, there is a risk that people will become more receptive to pro-Russian fakes.”
The questionable initiative comes as Germany is already experiencing mass protests, van den Ende noted, expressing hopes that the country’s citizens will only “protest more.”
“The next part, the freedom of speech is gone. What is left then? They have no life. They can’t pay their bills anymore, they can’t say what they want. It’s a total dictatorship,” she said.
They preach democracy and freedom, and they do the opposite.
The main goal of such activities is maintaining control over the media narrative, and the Western establishment simply fears that Russian outlets would breach it, the journalist believes.
“The threat they imagine is maybe that some truth will come out, that they are telling not what is really going on,” van den Ende said.
