Reference: Concentration of media ownership (also a problem in Germany, where the largest media keeps deliberately silent about the EPO scandals)

THE other day we noticed that the EPO had promoted/retweeted this old tweet (summer is too slow for the EPO) about the 'European Media Intervention Award' (EIA). Battistelli recently bragged (in the German media) about over a hundred 'manufactured' articles regarding EIA 2017. We decided to ask: "Is this one among the many PAID-FOR 'articles', which EPO reportedly paid 3 millions euros for?" (for one day)

"How much of the media have they already corrupted with large payments?"Etan Smallman soon replied by saying that the "EPO did not pay for the article, though they did cover costs of trip. Out of interest, where is 3 million euro figure from?"

The other day we published a translation of a long article in German; it seems to have just been translated by the publisher itself, so the information is now available in English (albeit behind a paywall). That's where the figure comes from, matching the estimates we learned about and wrote about over a year ago. I "wrote about that at the time and named you," I told Smallman, after he had told me that this wasn't the first time he wrote about the EIA 'festival' of Battistelli. They repeatedly invite him and cover all the costs.

"This is what the EPO is now doing and it's a form of bribery.""Don't help the EPO," I advised him. "They're malicious." I was referring to Team Battistelli. How much of the media have they already corrupted with large payments? One decade ago we wrote about Microsoft doing similar things, flying people from all around the world (even half way across the world) to some nice vacation. The strings? Just produce some puff pieces to the effect Microsoft wants. This is what the EPO is now doing and it's a form of bribery. In addition to this, there are even more nefarious media deals.

Incidentally, yesterday we checked again the EPO's Twitter Audit. It suggests that the proportion of legitimate (real) followers has decreased since we last checked and right now 4 out of 10 "followers" of the EPO are fake and likely paid for (there are dodgy people who create users farms and sell "followers"). The EPO's Twitter spamming habits make a payment quite likely/plausible an explanation. ⬆