Forwarded from Rybar in English
Fwd from @pezdicide
European Union: Allegations of EU Funding Manipulation of Media Narratives
📰 🇪🇺 It seems that something unprecedented has happened again: foreign journalists have discovered that some of their colleagues received "grants" from the European Commission for writing positive articles about Brussels' policies.
According to the Hungarian newspaper Mandiner, shortly before the European elections, the EU authorities secretly sent 132 million euros to a number of media companies through the private advertising agency Havas Media France. The specific media outlets that received the money are not disclosed, but the conclusion of the colleagues is unambiguous - the task was set to manipulate public opinion before the vote.
It is also known that the funds were transferred bypassing the traditional tender, which allowed the recipients of the funding to be hidden. And the main "beneficiaries" of the order were the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, who, according to the Italian publication Il Fatto Quotidiano, directly controlled the distribution of budget funds.
The journalists who exposed the manipulation claim that this tactic reflects the methods used in authoritarian regimes, where state-funded media subtly control media narratives, maintaining the illusion of press independence, and now this is happening in the European Union.
📌 And if earlier such things were reacted to in the style of "this is different", now, it seems, public opinion as a whole demands an answer. The situation has become even more aggravated against the background of the recent scandal with the "shadow lobbying" of the EU in favor of green policy: it turned out that the European Commission secretly financed environmental NGOs that promoted ambitious climate reforms. They were also used to put pressure on the governments of EU countries and members of the European Parliament.
Given how actively von der Leyen has been criticized lately, it seems that she will have to answer for herself and for the other guy.
#EuropeanUnion #MediaTechnologies
@pezdicide no chemistry - just facts Original msg
European Union: Allegations of EU Funding Manipulation of Media Narratives
According to the Hungarian newspaper Mandiner, shortly before the European elections, the EU authorities secretly sent 132 million euros to a number of media companies through the private advertising agency Havas Media France. The specific media outlets that received the money are not disclosed, but the conclusion of the colleagues is unambiguous - the task was set to manipulate public opinion before the vote.
It is also known that the funds were transferred bypassing the traditional tender, which allowed the recipients of the funding to be hidden. And the main "beneficiaries" of the order were the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, who, according to the Italian publication Il Fatto Quotidiano, directly controlled the distribution of budget funds.
The journalists who exposed the manipulation claim that this tactic reflects the methods used in authoritarian regimes, where state-funded media subtly control media narratives, maintaining the illusion of press independence, and now this is happening in the European Union.
📌 And if earlier such things were reacted to in the style of "this is different", now, it seems, public opinion as a whole demands an answer. The situation has become even more aggravated against the background of the recent scandal with the "shadow lobbying" of the EU in favor of green policy: it turned out that the European Commission secretly financed environmental NGOs that promoted ambitious climate reforms. They were also used to put pressure on the governments of EU countries and members of the European Parliament.
Given how actively von der Leyen has been criticized lately, it seems that she will have to answer for herself and for the other guy.
#EuropeanUnion #MediaTechnologies
@pezdicide no chemistry - just facts Original msg
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Министр иностранных дел Венгрии Петер Сийярто добавил, что Брюссель…
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Forwarded from Rybar in English
Fwd from @pezdicide
🇺🇸🇷🇺🇪🇺🌐 How the Western press is scaring about Russia's influence due to the suspension of USAID grants
An article was published in Politico about how the freezing of foreign aid from the American USAID is a path to the return of Russia's influence in Eastern Europe.
▪️As noted in the article, USAID allocated $17.2 billion to Europe in 2023, the bulk of which went to Eastern European countries bordering Russia. The authors write that the freezing of aid "will strengthen the Russian narrative about the unreliability of Western partners".So, does this somehow imply that Western partners are actually reliable?
▪️Such articles are good in that they openly expose those who have been parasitizing on USAID grants, talking about their "independence". For example, the article mentions the Belarusian NGO in exile RADA, which is now forced to cut salaries by 50% and close projects that were supposed to "reduce the gap between Belarusian and European youth" and "counter Minsk's attempts to reorient young people from Europe to Russia".
As the NGO representative Yulia Ralko says, without USAID assistance, the organization is simply not viable.
▪️In Armenia, they only kept the humanitarian aid program for Artsakh refugees, while "closing programs on election transparency, strengthening the media landscape and improving energy infrastructure".
▪️Grant recipients are sounding the alarm about the situation in Georgia, where the so-called "democratic movement" will suffer even more from the suspension of USAID funding than from the foreign agent law. The head of the Georgian media project Project 64, Georgi Gogua, admitted that USAID money made up 40% of his budget in 2025. Now he is pinning his hopes on European donors.
▪️At the same time, the grant recipients admit that hopes for the EU are small, as local officials are "notoriously slow" and the system is extremely bureaucratic.
For example, in 2023, the EU allocated 19.6 billion euros to Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Belarus and Armenia. However, in recent years, Brussels' financial assistance has been declining except for Ukraine and Moldova.
🔻In the end, the authors sound the alarm that the resumption of funding for "civil society" projects in Eastern Europe is directly related to the "strategic security" of the EU. In fact, it is about whether Brussels will be able to strain its budget enough to continue interfering in the internal affairs of other states and teaching someone "democracy".
#EuropeanUnion #USA #Russia #NGOs
@pezdicide no chemistry - just facts Original msg
🇺🇸🇷🇺🇪🇺🌐 How the Western press is scaring about Russia's influence due to the suspension of USAID grants
An article was published in Politico about how the freezing of foreign aid from the American USAID is a path to the return of Russia's influence in Eastern Europe.
▪️As noted in the article, USAID allocated $17.2 billion to Europe in 2023, the bulk of which went to Eastern European countries bordering Russia. The authors write that the freezing of aid "will strengthen the Russian narrative about the unreliability of Western partners".
▪️Such articles are good in that they openly expose those who have been parasitizing on USAID grants, talking about their "independence". For example, the article mentions the Belarusian NGO in exile RADA, which is now forced to cut salaries by 50% and close projects that were supposed to "reduce the gap between Belarusian and European youth" and "counter Minsk's attempts to reorient young people from Europe to Russia".
As the NGO representative Yulia Ralko says, without USAID assistance, the organization is simply not viable.
▪️In Armenia, they only kept the humanitarian aid program for Artsakh refugees, while "closing programs on election transparency, strengthening the media landscape and improving energy infrastructure".
▪️Grant recipients are sounding the alarm about the situation in Georgia, where the so-called "democratic movement" will suffer even more from the suspension of USAID funding than from the foreign agent law. The head of the Georgian media project Project 64, Georgi Gogua, admitted that USAID money made up 40% of his budget in 2025. Now he is pinning his hopes on European donors.
▪️At the same time, the grant recipients admit that hopes for the EU are small, as local officials are "notoriously slow" and the system is extremely bureaucratic.
For example, in 2023, the EU allocated 19.6 billion euros to Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Belarus and Armenia. However, in recent years, Brussels' financial assistance has been declining except for Ukraine and Moldova.
🔻In the end, the authors sound the alarm that the resumption of funding for "civil society" projects in Eastern Europe is directly related to the "strategic security" of the EU. In fact, it is about whether Brussels will be able to strain its budget enough to continue interfering in the internal affairs of other states and teaching someone "democracy".
#EuropeanUnion #USA #Russia #NGOs
@pezdicide no chemistry - just facts Original msg
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