European Union Orders British Press NOT to Report when Terrorists are Muslims

[rangerrebew]

European Union Orders British Press NOT to Report when Terrorists are Muslims

by Yves Mamou
November 18, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9190/media-censorship-muslims-terrorists


    This is the moment where hate speech laws become a greater threat to democracy and freedom of speech than hate speech itself.

    In France, Muslim terrorists are never Muslim terrorists, but "lunatics," "maniacs" and "youths".

    To attack freedom of the press and freedom of speech is not anti-hate speech; it is submission.

    By following these recommendations, the British government would place Muslim organizations in a kind of monopoly position: they would become the only source of information about themselves. It is the perfect totalitarian information order.

    Created to guard against the kind of xenophobic and anti-Semitic propaganda that gave rise to the Holocaust, national hate speech laws have increasingly been invoked to criminalize speech that is merely deemed insulting to one's race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality.

    It is disturbing to wonder how long the EU will strongly engage its experts and influence to cut through existing legal obstacles, in a quest to criminalize any type of criticism of Islam, and to submit to the values of jihad.

[EC]

Before anyone gets too indignant, the government has already very firmly told the EUweenies to piss off. It's about 2/3 of the way down this article.

While we don't have a totally free press (the power of D notices is envied by some dictatorships) the principle of none interference in what is published is very strong.

[rangerrebew]

Is this "order" a  response to Brexit?

[EC]

I'd not be in the slightest bit surprised. Especially since the demands the ECRI were making are actually weaker than our home grown laws.

Their demands from the article, with my annotations:

    "establish an independent press regulator"; Already exists. The Press Complaints Commission. Their address and contact details are found, by law, somewhere on the first 4 pages of every newspaper and on the copyright/publishers page of every news periodical.
    "rigorous training for journalists to ensure better compliance with ethical standards"; While there are rare problems with ethical reporting (not commentary, that is unrestricted), the NUJ's ethical guidelines are adhered to by the most part - primarily because the union itself drops your case like toxic waste if you violate the guidelines and are pulled for it. Legal action in the UK is expensive.
    "review the provisions on incitement to hatred with a view to making them more effective and usable"; Reviewed yearly as part of the Annual Law review. This considers every case concluded in the past year to look for areas of the law where clarifications are needed (or loopholes exist).
    "establish a real dialogue with Muslims in order to combat Islamophobia. They should consult them on all policies which could affect Muslims"; Happens, both at an editorial level and at a senior policy level. Muslims in the UK is not exactly a new thing. I mean - Helloooo - we ran over half the world for a few centuries. Got some practice in at that.
    amending the Editor's Code of Practice to ensure that members of groups can submit complaints as victims against biased or prejudicial reporting concerning their community" Already can, either directly to the paper concerned, or to the PCC, or directly to parliament via their MP (this is not a special accommodation - every citizen or established resident of the UK has this right.)

[TomSea]

I think the BBC has already practiced this some.

Good luck if the Daily Mail or Sun are going to follow suit.

Fun website on the Beeb: http://biasedbbc.org/ Still a pretty good reporting outfit, one just has to know how they are.

[MajorClay]

It is out in the open now.