Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Sad State of German Anti-Corruption Authorities and Investigative Journalism, as Demonstrated by the EPO

The EPO in Munich enjoys apathy and toothlessness that prevails in media and watchdogs around it

Reichstag



Summary: A personal view on why the EPO manages to get away with so many abuses while the media and watchdogs like Transparency International (TI) play along by doing nothing at all about it

THE EPO is very difficult to trust nowadays because the management routinely lies and the liars are sometimes former staff of the growingly-defunct Transparency International (TI), which was supposed to combat corruption but is increasingly participating in it (or helping to cover it up).



One reader told us, "referring to your article [the above] there's another interference with TI by the person of Hedda van Wedel. The wikipedia article about CORRECTIV names her as member of the supervisory board. If you follow the link to the German wiki about Hedda [see Hedda_von_Wedel] it is noted that she was elected vice president of TI Germany in 2007..."

One has to wonder then who is left to expose the abuses at the EPO, as the government of Germany seems entirely disinterested and the media does a terrible job. The EPO and EUIPO are promoting a big lie, still in pursuit of 'cheap' (no fact-checking) press coverage (sometimes they get it), yet almost nobody in the German media speaks about the latest scandals. There was a long discussion about who's a good journalist to contact about this and one person wrote:

for investigative journalism one golden rule : follow the money.

EPO has plenty (2.000.000.000 EUR / year budget and ZERO decent check-and-balances comparable to what can be found at UNO or EU)

They are currently building expensive in NL aren't they ;o)

Be seeing you


Remember that the EPO effectively bribes/attacks media. It's basically operating in a very corrupt and aggressive manner (like shipping/dishing libel through journalists while threatening others with libel lawsuits) and today someone posted this good point about why EPO scandals' media coverage is so scarce. It's “giving aid and comfort to “…exiteers”,” the person said. Here is the full comment:

Indeed it is difficult, for the reasons given by Sam McClure, to interest investigative journalists. I know, I've tried and so have others to my knowledge. There is an additional barrier he did not mention: anything "European" is considered by the media in many countries, even those with a "free" press, to be a sacred cow that cannot be criticized for fear of giving aid and comfort to "..exiteers". Even if one could find a keen journalist, what mainstream media would touch this story?


Probably just about no "mainstream media" (corporate media), which is why many people still rely on Techrights for information and our Wiki page about the EPO is approaching half a million page views.

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