The European Union (EU)’s ‘Court of Justice’ has authorised the criminal prosecution of anyone who publicly shares videos by Russia‘s RT.

The ultra-Orwellian move makes no distinction whether what the video says is true. It makes no exemption for journalists. EU citizens can be jailed for, as well-known commentator Arnaud Bertrand notes, sharing an RT video saying the sky is blue:

Think about the absurdity of it: if RT publishes a video saying the sky is blue and you share it on a publicly accessible website in the EU, you’d fall within the scope of this ruling, making you liable to criminal prosecution.

Completely and utterly absurd. But that’s the EU today for you.

Truth is no defence

He added:

[T]o be clear, it isn’t just censorship in the conventional sense – blocking access to a website or removing content from platforms – this is the criminalization of information relayed by private citizens, with prison sentences attached.

And the most insane aspect if that it does NOT matter if the information relayed is accurate or not. It just matters that it originates from RT or other media outlets banned in the EU.

In other words, truth isn’t a defense anymore in the EU, it literally doesn’t matter. It’s purely based on the identity of the speaker.

The ruling is actually explicit about this: the regulation, quoted by the Court says that the prohibition applies to “any content,” and they draw no distinction based on what the content actually says. If it originates from banned outlets, it’s banned.

It is, quite simply, a complete unraveling of the entire post-Enlightenment legal and philosophical project where entire generations of Europeans fought to move from “who says it” to “is it true” as the operative question.

The EU is desperate — like the UK — to shore up its defence of and support for nazi-riddled Ukraine, which Germany believes blew up Germany’s gas pipelines from Russia. But if anyone in the EU shares facts about the war — or anything else — using video evidence published by RT, off to jail they go.

EU epidemic

The EU court ruling is part of an anti-democratic epidemic spreading around so-called ‘liberal democracies’. Germany is persecuting its own citizens on the basis that even reporting Israel’s crimes in Palestine and Lebanon somehow undermines the war against Russia. The Starmer regime in the UK has been using terror laws to wage war on free speech about Israel for years while hiding Israel’s influence on UK politics.

Not satisfied with that, it is now awarding itself the power to go beyond the Terrorism Act and ‘designate’ any group it doesn’t like. The ‘designation’ makes any show of support for that group punishable by fourteen years in prison — and puts the burden of proof on the accused rather than the state. Not just support either — a journalist sharing information from ‘designated’ sources is just as liable.

Israel’s genocide and crimes against humanity and Ukraine’s war with Russia have forced western ‘democracies’ to unveil their real selves.

Featured image via BrusslesTimes

By Skwawkbox

From Canary via This RSS Feed.