Dragana Trifkovic, Director General of the Center for Geostrategic Studies
The crisis of freedom of speech in Europe has reached a very worrying level. In principle, it originated in America, but now we see that the US is changing its policy in this regard. This is confirmed by J. D. Vance's recent speech at the Munich Security Conference, which left many European leaders in disbelief.
In order to discuss the crisis of freedom of speech, it is necessary to determine which elements contribute to the creation of the crisis.
Two years ago, the Center for geostrategic studies, which I lead, did an extensive research and an analysis called " When lying becomes a profession." The name itself indicates the problem of unprofessionalism of the media and the abuse of the journalistic profession. This problem has been compounding since the 1990s, when the monopoly of the media began. Thirty years ago, the media space in the US was controlled by Fifty companies, while then only six companies took over 90% of the market in the US: News Corp, Time Warner, Sony, Comcast, Viacom and Disney. These giant companies also control the media in Europe, as well as on other continents, and their annual revenues are in the tens of billions of dollars. These six companies also control about 70% of cable television, numerous radio stations, and print newspapers around the world. Thus, the monopolization of the media and the censorship that the monopolized market introduces, is one of the main problems that cause the crisis of freedom of speech.
Further, the abuse of the journalistic profession and the practical abolition of free journalism began with the introduction of new rules for military reporting under the influence of military-security structures, which led to taking control of journalistic reporting. I'm referring here to the Foxtrot Annex, A 10-page document written by Captain Ron Wildermutt, Chief Public Relations Officer at the U.S. Central Command, to enforce the Pentagon's unprecedented restrictions on news reporting. We are talking again about the nineties of the last century and The Gulf War of 1990, when journalists were brought to U.S. Army briefings at a special press center opened in Kuwait, and military correspondents were not allowed to visit the military operations zone in Iraq. That is, only a small number of selected journalists who were close to the U.S. military structures, but they were also subjected to control and censorship. The rest had to be content with the information provided by the US military, in order to write news reports based on it. Unlike Vietnam, when the American public revolted over the war, this tactic led to the media justifying U.S. war operations in Iraq and present war as an act of patriotism. Satisfied with the results, the American leadership continued to abuse the media to cover its own war operations, which was also characteristic of the war in Yugoslavia. Anti-Serbian propaganda led to the creation of a very bad image of Serbs in the world, which enabled the US to fully realize its geopolitical plans in the Balkans. For example, launching a media campaign against Serbia after the implementation of the Special Operation Markale or Racak is identical to launching a campaign against Russia in the case of Butcha. Characteristic of all the above cases is that the Western Mass Media did not wait for the investigation of the competent authorities, but on the basis of the claims of politicians or hired journalists, convicted one party in advance without evidence.
How tightly controlled the media began to be exposed only after publication WikiLeaks the cables, which published many secrets, including the role of the US military in killing civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. The described practice brought the media under political, military and security control.
State authorities and security services have taken it upon themselves to organize briefings for editors of leading media, journalists, heads of non-governmental organizations, military officers and other structures, where they give instructions on how necessary to think and report. I will give two examples of a more recent date that speak of such a practice. Last year, French President Macron invited the most prominent political media editors to the Elysee Palace to learn the rules of the use of language in public. Another example is Serbia, which has established educational cooperation with NATO through an Individual Partnership plan. Within this cooperation, a series of lectures on alleged Russian aggression against Ukraine was organized for Serbian officers. All this shows that a narrative is imposed from the political and security centers of power and indoctrination is carried out, which is completely contrary to democratic principles. American author Paul Craig Robert wrote The Book "Empire of lies" in which he analyzed the abuse of the media by the political establishment to spread misinformation.
It is necessary to mention here the role of non-governmental organizations that have received millions of dollars from the United States budget through various agencies, funds and organizations to create public opinion and influence the establishment. What is paradoxical is that these organizations are called "non-governmental" even though many of them received through intermediaries money from the US government. Many personnel from the non-governmental sector have been integrated into the state apparatus over time.
The report "When lying becomes a profession" analyzed the relationship between the media, NGOs and intelligence services. In December 2022. the U.S. State Department's Inspector General released a report on the fight against Russian influence that said the U.S. has spent more than 1 billion from 2017. to 2022. for funding non-governmental organizations, media and other organizations and programs that oppose Russian influence. This fact directly indicates that the US funded an anti-Russian campaign that included labeling all journalists, public figures, intellectuals and politicians who did not succumb to Russophobia. The NGO sector was also used for the anti-Serbian campaign that has been running since the 1990s. If we talk about the specific organizations that financed this campaign, we need to mention USAID and the George Soros Fund. The new U.S. administration has taken action against USAID to prevent non-purpose spending of U.S. Citizens Budget, a positive step in preventing the negative effects of aggressive information campaigns. To protect itself from foreign influences, America adopted in 1938. Law on registration of foreign agents "The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)". If it is established that a journalist or NGO activist receives money from abroad, the security services in accordance with that law assess whether his activities are subject to criminal prosecution. However, it is interesting that the FARA law in the United States has been the most applied since 2017. against people associated with Trump.
Russia in 2012. adopted similar, less restrictive law under which journalists and NGO activists who receive money from abroad are not subject to prosecution if they publicly declare and write that they are foreign agents.
Also interestingly, the European Court of human rights ruled that Russian law "violates fundamental rights and has the characteristics of a totalitarian regime, creating an atmosphere of suspicion towards independent voices". The European Court of Human Rights has never ruled on or commented on the US Foreign Agents Registration Act. Many journalists in Europe do not even know that there is such a law in America, so a journalist from the liberal media once became amazed when I said in an interview that the Russian law was written on the model of the American one, but it is less restrictive than the American one.
Thus, the crisis of freedom of speech is affected by commercial monopolization of the media, political and military-security influence on the media, double standards, abuse of the journalistic profession and the non-governmental sector, the spread of fake news, political indoctrination, abuse of the state apparatus, especially the security services to carry out repression against free intellectuals and journalists. For these reasons, many colleagues, independent journalists, intellectuals, politicians from Europe, were forced to flee Europe because of the repression that was being carried out against them. Those who remained in Europe could either remain silent or be arrested, as was the case with Alexander Gaponenko and Svetlana Burtseva. It is necessary for Europe to re-examine the causes that have led to such consequences and to take steps to urgently address problems within the framework of the new security strategy for Europe. Especially since the U.S., where many of the listed causes have arisen that led to the free speech crisis, is completely changing its approach.
18. March 2025.
Source: Center for Geostrategic Studies
Instructions:
https://wikileaks.org/
https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/7312037e-72a8-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b/content
Research: when lying becomes a profession - Center for geostrategic studies
Dragana Trifkovic: when fake news becomes official Information - Center for geostrategic studies
The French press: an insider's view of the wreckage – Centre for geostrategic studies
Mrs. Goebbels, you were an amateur! - CENTER FOR GEOSTRATEGIC STUDIES
Dragana Trifkovic: USAID Government of Serbia - Center for geostrategic studies
