EU sanctions three journalists in shocking attack on free speech
Two German journalists and a Turkish national living in Germany have been banned from entering the EU and had their bank accounts frozen for their critical reporting on Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza
I’ve written for Public about the EU’s shocking and utterly unprecedented decision to sanction three journalists for the critical reporting on Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza — including, for the first time ever, two EU citizens from Germany. This means they are now banned from entering the EU and their bank accounts have been frozen.
This marks a chilling escalation in the EU’s assault on free speech and other fundamental rights: never before had the EU sanctioned two of its own citizens, effectively forcing them into exile. Should they violate the sanctions, they face a minimum of 5 years’ imprisonment.
The fact that challenging the EU-NATO narrative on the war — or even openly endorsing the Russian government or testifying in Russia’s favour at the UN, for that matter — is now effectively treated as a quasi-criminal, de facto act of treason justifying extra-judicial punishment in the form of travel bans and asset freezes is nothing short of terrifying.
The ethical and legal implications are staggering: two EU citizens have effectively been stripped of their basic civil liberties — exiled from virtually the entire European continent, subjected to financial strangulation and deprived of their livelihoods — through a simple act of bureaucratic fiat, without trial or court ruling. This is punishment without process, imposed by an unaccountable, out-of-control elite, in defiance of the most basic principles of the rule of law.
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Thomas Fazi
Website: thomasfazi.net
Twitter: @battleforeurope
Latest book: The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left (co-authored with Toby Green)
The only reason for this would be they plan to ramp up the hostilities against Russia, to actually invading Russia. Which of course most Europeans would be against. So the opposition needs to be muzzled.
thanks thomas.. keep up the great work!