ESN Group MEP Petr Bystron commented:
“We’re talking about billions that Brussels apparently intends to pour—without any real democratic oversight—into a new censorship and propaganda infrastructure. Under the guise of ‘protecting democracy,’ a vast subsidy machine is being created for government-friendly platforms and media, while critical voices continue to be excluded.
That European taxpayers are now expected to fill the gap left by USAID’s cuts is an affront to anyone who believes in genuine media diversity. Brussels presumes to decide which information is ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ which media are ‘free’ and which are ‘propaganda.’ In doing so, the EU is definitively abandoning the free marketplace of ideas.
We will oppose these plans resolutely. If the European Union were serious about press and speech freedom, it would tolerate inconvenient or foreign broadcasters instead of pumping billions into an ideological police force. Disinformation and propaganda are always blamed on others—yet with this program Brussels is institutionalizing one-sided control of opinion itself.”
