Bonum Certa Men Certa

Readers' Article: A Strange Conspiracy of Silence in the German Media (Part I)

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” ~Upton Sinclair

Ana Marie keeps quiet



Summary: The views of some of our readers regarding reluctance in the German media to challenge the EPO's violations of German law, probably because Germany benefits from being a host nation of the EPO

As a frequent media critic (more evident/visible in my social media accounts than in this Web site), I have come across plenty of evidence of censorship and self-censorship in the European media. Some links about that are being shared daily (under, e.g., the "Censorship" category in our daily links). Techrights itself is subjected to site-wide censorship by the EPO right now. I experienced both censorship and self-censorship when I worked for a publisher one decade ago (my editor removed or watered down paragraphs of mine which were critical of an occasional sponsor, Microsoft). There are serious issues in the editorial/publication process that not many people are generally aware of. If one suspects that censorship takes place, it will often turn out to be the case (even if there is no admission as nobody likes to admit suppression of free speech). Even WIPR, which frequently covers EPO matters, did it some months ago (censorship of criticism of the EPO, due to pressure from management).



"Even WIPR, which frequently covers EPO matters, did it some months ago (censorship of criticism of the EPO, due to pressure from management)."Let's face the reality of corporate media; in order to be financially viable someone must benefit financially, and it's not always just the advertisers (to whom access to readers/audience is effectively sold). There is agenda to be delivered for some people's financial gain (not just through advertising of products but of policy).

Germany's media outlets are no exception to this problem. Take the European Union for instance. Germany benefits from it financially (weapons trade, austerity in Greece and various loans inside the EU come to mind), so it doesn't wish to criticise it too much. I personally support the European Union and I even have a booklet in support of the European Union, given to me 17 years ago by the German Consulate.

"Much of the media supports the EPO by silence, i.e. by not covering all the negative stories coming out of the EPO."Germany's media is not likely to bash the European Union to the same degree that the British media sometimes does (just see what the Daily Mail has just published in its front page/cover). Germany is at the very heart of the European Union. It cannot criticise the US too harshly, either (see for example "European media writing pro-US stories under CIA pressure - German journo"). To cite this article from a very prominent media person (check his career profile), former CIA Director William Colby is quoted as saying that the “CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media.”

As we've just noted, the EPO works for corporations, not for Europeans. It just has the word "European" in its name. It should thus be seen as unsurprising that the corporate media will typicaly be biased in favour of the EPO. Much of the media supports the EPO by silence, i.e. by not covering all the negative stories coming out of the EPO.

Here is what some readers told us yesterday:

We wanted to make a few observations in response to your recent posting about the article "Es kracht an allen Ecken und Enden" which appeared in the Münchner Merkur on 21 January.

The article is written by Thomas Magenheim-Hörmann, a Munich-based journalist who writes for the Münchner Merkur, a regional daily for Munich.

His articles are normally distributed and reproduced Germany-wide in other regional dailies such as the "Oberbayrisches Volksblatt", "Frankfurter Rundschau", Berliner Zeitung", "Stuttgarter Zeitung", "Badische Zeitung", "Pfälzischer Merkur", etc.

For example:

„Wie bei der Fifa oder in China“ Europäisches Patentamt: Kritik am Chef des Europäischen Patentamtes Patentrecht: Patent auf Brokkoli Der soziale Frieden ist zerstört Verhältnisse wie im Ãœberwachungsstaat Großer Zoff beim Patentamt

Magenheim-Hörmann's article about the EPO are well researched and of a superior journalistic quality to what one might normally expect in the regional press.

In recent times he has been giving far better and more penetrating coverage to EPO matters than any of the big German dailies, in particular the Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung which seems to have gone completely silent.

What is curious about his most recent article is the fact that it only appeared in the paper version of the Münchner Merkur.

It is not available online on open access (although it seems that it can be found behind a paywall) and it doesn't appear in any of the other regional dailies or at least it doesn't seem to turn up in Google searches.

It's almost as if somebody is trying to impede the circulation of the article.

Some speculation about this:

The latest article "Es kracht an allen Ecken und Enden" focuses on the social conflict at the EPO but in a byline it also mentions the recent "Monsanto melon" incident. The biotech patenting controversy seems to be generating a lot of grass-roots political protest in Germany and in neighboring countries such as Austria and Switzerland. Is it possible that somebody at a high political level is getting nervous about people making connections between the social conflict at the EPO and questionable management policies which seem to be aimed at encouraging biotech patenting ?




The deafening silence from the German media about recent EPO matters and the obvious reluctance of the German courts to question the EPO's immunity are also suspicious.

On both fronts the response in Germany compares very unfavorably to that in the neighbouring Netherlands (the other main EPO host state) where both the press and the judiciary clearly have less inhibitions about subjecting the alleged abuses of EPO management to justifiable public scrutiny.

Here is an article published today in the UK press which explains how the German media is under strong political influence from the government. It seems reasonable to assume that this also applies to reporting about EPO matters.


In part 2 we are going to deal with further suspicious omissions (or suppressions) in reporting of EPO-related scandals.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable on persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." ~George Bernard Shaw

Recent Techrights' Posts

Promoting Microsoft Windows With LLM Slop
What is the policy at BetaNews regarding LLM slop?
Alex Oliva, the Potential 'Successor' of RMS, Has a New Web Site
More freedom for Alex Oliva
 
Links 17/02/2025: LLMs Failing and Patreon Support Becoming a Burden to Bloggers
Links for the day
Links 17/02/2025: Blogroll Conundrum; Research, Scientists Under Siege
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 16, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, February 16, 2025
Links 16/02/2025: Nostalgia for Physical Media and the US Government Actively Promotes Pro-Kremlin Politicians in the EU
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/02/2025:Life, Cynicism, and languages
Links for the day
Links 16/02/2025: Oligarchs "Collect Your Data and Control Your World", Global Temperatures Shoot Up
Links for the day
Links 16/02/2025: "Microsoft Is Laying Off Employees" and Internal Dissent Brewing at Facebook Over Regime Complicity
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 15, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, February 15, 2025
Links 15/02/2025: Harms to Health, Public Domain, and More
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/02/2025: On Autistic People, AuraGem Over HTTPS
Links for the day
The Cyber Show (C|S) Speaks of the "Rise of the Nerd Reich."
This 'Valentine Episode' is quite good
Azure is Turning 17 This Year, Still Losing Money and Staff
Hallmark of pyramid schemes, deriving "value" out of things that do not really exist?
Strong Momentum for the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as Winter Approaches Its End in Boston or in the Northern Hemisphere
FSF's founder, Richard Stallman, gives another talk in Italy in 9 days from now
The 'Drunken Plagiarists' Are Harming Journalism About GNU/Linux
They lessen the incentive to do real journalism abut GNU/Linux
Female Nazis and racist Swiss women
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Richard Stallman on RISC-V and Free Hardware
Invidious is under attack by Google
Links 15/02/2025: Erasing of American Science and Tesla SLAPPing Critics
Links for the day
IDG 'Reviews' of GNU/Linux Now Contain LLM Slop
It's typically ads or commercials... or sometimes spin disguised as news
Gemini Links 15/02/2025: Spectacles and "Before Sunset", Moving Domains Out of the US
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Only $17,482 Million Left, "Cash on Hand" Sank 40 Billion Dollars in 2 Years
Microsoft runs low on money in the bank
YouTube Layoffs Mean That YouTube is Still Losing a Lot of Money (Net Income or Profit Almost Definitely Negative)
In more recent years Google defunded many vloggers
In Gopher and Gemini Protocol People Abandon Services Based in the United States
There's no resistance whatsoever
Python and Microsoft: Pandas Should Have Known OpenDocument Format (ODF) and Microsoft Excel Are Different and Competing Things
now we're meant to think that in order to open ODF files we need some functions with "Excel" in their name
Not Only Windows, Surface, and "Hey Hi" PCs; Microsoft's Hardware Ventures Are a Dumpster Fire; HoloLens Mixed Reality Hardware Now Axed Altogether and Staff is Miserable
Microsoft is in a terrible state
Certificate Authority (CA) Let's Encrypt Now Down to TEN (0.3% of the Whole) in Geminispace
The number of capsules that use Let's Encrypt is, according to Lupa, about to fall to single-digit figures
Links 15/02/2025: University Price Hikes and Copyright Action Against Slop Companies
Links for the day
Slopwatch: All Those New 'Articles' Are Fake and Crafted by Chatbots (LLM Slop)
Google News is promoting these as "Linux" news; they're not even made by humans
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 14, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, February 14, 2025