eurealist.co.uk

Estonian MEP who drafted the media pluralism report, socialist deputy Marianne Mikko, has come under a storm of media attacks in Sweden on her suggestion that there should be register of Bloggers.
Her arguments are elitist in the extreme in that she says:

“The reader should know why this or that blogger should be trusted on a particular issue.”

“It is clear that a Harvard professor of international relations is likely to treat, for instance, the Middle East peace process or European integration in an educated and balanced manner,”

“The same trust cannot be put in a radical high school student from Gaza or a Eurosceptic who has never been out of his village”

“We do not need to know the exact identity of bloggers. We need some credentials, a quality mark, a certain disclosure of who is writing and why. We need this to be able to trust and rely on the source.”

“The Economist is a valuable brand, its articles are trusted by readers without contributors having to reveal their names,” she said. “If there is a way to validate the best bloggers the same way that publishing in the Economist validates its writers, it should be done.”

And who exactly validates The Economist for balance, where does its priorities lie? and how can we trust an organisation where the editorial staff enforce a uniform liberal pro EU voice throughout its pages? The editors say this is necessary because “collective voice and personality matter more than the identities of individual journalists”

And exactly why should we trust so called balance of in an academic who is paid in the main by the EU, and is therefore only to willing to write reports that support the aims and values of his paymasters in Brussels.
The report calls for a clarification of the legal status of webblog authors and wants to see a disclosure of interests, and the voluntary labelling of webblogs.

I would like to see a clear a clarification of the legal status of the EU something long overdue from an organisation that claims to speak on my behalf.

I would like to see disclosure of interests, from people who fully support the organisation, such as the present leader of the LibDems and all of those in the House of Lords who do not deem it in the public interest to disclose that they are in receipt of large protected EU pensions for as long as they do nothing to bring the EU into disrespect such as voting against an EU treaty or against the interests of the EU. I would like to see the BBC disclose that it receives grants and special rate loans from the EU on condition that it supports the aims and values of the EU. I would like to see the disclosure of interests from Whitehall mandarins such a Stephen Wall who openly admitted that for most of his working life whilst being paid by the British Taxpayer to further the interests of Britain he was in fact furthering the interests of the Union.

For that matter how can we trust the voice of the MEP in question Marianne Mikko, is a socialist MEP, obviously in the pay of the EU and obviously supportive of the EU. Yet she wishes to appear as if she is only looking out for the rights of the European people, but is effectively doing the opposite by furthering to interests of EU establishment by trying to control our freedom of speech by controlling blogs and bloggers.

EUOBSERVER