The Destruction of Democracy in the EU on The Protagonists.

The Destruction of Democracy in the EU.

EU's has recently announced a Democracy Shield - to monitor "information manipulation." It also includes a Media Resilience Program to support independent journalism.

What is this but a Ministry of Truth and an assault on free speech and national sovereignty?

The media landscape in Europe is already corrupted by a large censorship machine. An EU funded CERV, Creative Europe and other sources funnel billions of euros into organisations that are supposedly independent but are not. Now even more funds will go into super- charging Brussels propaganda.

With seemingly an endless flow of money, the EU sits like a giant parasite on top of its member states; committing to an endless war in Ukraine, threatening to plunder Russian sovereign assets, developing inter-operable digital infrastructure, digitised currency and a surveillance state.

Thomas Fazi who couldn't join us today writes that the Democracy Shield is a dangerous escalation into an EU wide censorship machine. Tools like this and the Digital Services Act, claim to protect citizens and democracy but coupled with Ursula von der Leyen's plans for a EU intelligence apparatus points to to a " broader and deeply disturbing power centralisation in the hands of the Commission and Ursula von de Leyen personally. Fazi says the war on democracy isn't being waged by Moscow or Beijing but by Brussels"

How did we get here. Why can't this dangerous decent into tyranny be stopped by the member states. Our guests today will give us their views on the EU and where to from here?

Mike Ryan HOST

Guests:

Paul D. Thacker | American Investigative Journalist | Founder of The Disinformation Chronicle.

Paul D. Thacker is an American Investigative Reporter; Former Investigator United States Senate; Former Fellow Safra Ethics Center, Harvard University. He runs The Disinformation Chronicle Substack https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/ The DisInformation Chronicle reports on corruption in science and medicine. Paul won a 2021 British Journalism Award for a series in The BMJ that investigated the financial interests of medical experts advising U.S. and U.K. governments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul has written on conflicts of interests and corruption in science and medicine for multiple outlets over the years, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, NEJM, The New Republic, Vice, Slate, JAMA, Environmental Science & Technology, and Mother Jones.

Prof. Emeritus Oliver Boyd-Barrett | Bowling Green University Ohio & California State University

Oliver Boyd-Barrett is Professor Emeritus at Bowling Green University, Ohio and of California State University. He acquired his PhD at the Open University (United Kingdom). He is a scholar of international communication with particular reference to international news agencies of all kinds, and the role of propaganda in international conflicts. He authored The International News Agencies (Sage/Constable 1980). His most recent (co-authored) book (2025) is Propaganda, Communication and Empire: Western Intervention in Afghanistan. Other recent titles include Conflict Propaganda in Syria: Narrative Battles (2022), and, co-edited with Stephen Marmura, Russiagate Revisited: The Aftermath of a Hoax (2023).

Dr. Greg Simons | Geopolitical Commentator | Expert In Media & Communications

BIO: Dr Greg Simons is a Professor based at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, Daffodil International University in Bangladesh. He has expertise on Russian mass media; terrorism; public diplomacy; the relationship between politics, information and armed conflict. He is currently working on the role of information and communication in contemporary geopolitics.

About: The Protagonists is a panel of three or four, which presents hot-topic discussions on politics, business, newsmakers, global trends, present-day conflicts, and dangers and challenges facing our world.

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