On Tuesday, the German media oversight agency, the ZAK, announced that it was prohibiting broadcasting of the Austrian alternative TV channel AUF1 on German satellite television. AUF stands for Alternative Unabhängige Fernsehen or ‘Alternative Independent Television’.
The decision is ostensibly based on a technical violation: it is, more precisely, the Stuttgart-based television channel SRGT which is prohibited from broadcasting AUF1 programming in Germany. But, as reaction to the ban in the mainstream German media and from activist organisations makes clear, it is in fact the content of the programming that is at issue.
Thus, the self-described “citizens’ movement” Campact, which has campaigned for a prohibition of the channel, celebrated what it called a “victory against Right-wing extremism” by posting the below graphic on X. The top line reads: “Success against Hate and Fake News on TV.” This is gleefully followed by “Far-Right TV-Network Shut Down!”, which is highlighted in red, and then “Our protest works! AUF1 is no longer allowed to broadcast in Germany”. This is all very reminiscent of the campaign against GB News in the U.K., a TV station which occupies a similar role of conservative dissent from the broadcast mainstream.
The selected, er, ‘hate’ figures featuring in the image include two prominent representatives of Germany’s AfD or Alternative for Germany party: Alice Weidel, the party Co-Chair, and Björn Höcke, the head of the party’s parliamentary group in the state of Thuringia. The AfD is under surveillance by the German domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, for suspicion of “extremism” and is regularly threatened with being banned. The regional party organisations in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, where the party enjoys the support of around one-third of the electorate according to the latest polling, have been officially classified as “far-Right” by the BfV.
But sandwiched between the two AfD politicians in the Campact graphic is none other than the former director of the BfV, Hans-Georg Maaßen! Maaßen headed the domestic intelligence agency, whose spying activities are largely devoted to ostensibly “combatting extremism”, from 2012 to 2018. But, in light of his frequent criticism of Government policy and the often heterodox positions he has adopted on a wide variety of subjects in the meanwhile, he has somehow now morphed into an emblem of alleged ‘extremism’ himself.
While its detractors accuse AUF1 of having provided a platform for the ‘far Right’, the channel has in fact, above all, made a name for itself in Austria and Germany for its critical coverage of and frank opposition to Covid-related measures. This is reflected in the below photo with which the German public broadcaster SWR illustrates an article on the banning of the Austrian channel. The SWR article also, incidentally, attempts to highlight the channels’ connections to the AfD and the “far Right”.
The posters, which include the AUF1 logo, read “No to forced vaccination!” and “The pandemic is over. Take off your masks!”
While the banning of AUF1 has been applauded by German activist groups and the mainstream media, there is less unanimity in social media. Thus, in a post which has garnered many hundreds of reposts and likes, X user ‘AntoineRichard’ comments:
Have you heard? #Auf1 has been shut down in Germany! But it’s also important to know that in the best Germany of all time there is no #censorship, but rather #freedomofspeech! This is something we can be really proud of!
This is followed by two emojis:
Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on X.
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The Guardian ceased to be a neutral investigative paper about 10 years ago when MI6 paid them a visit after they had released some Snowden Files.
It is now run by Head Girls and read only by teachers.
They are sell about 60,000 copies – mainly to the BBC and other leftie organisations – and so were steadily going bankrupt so Bill Gates stepped in to prop them up.
Having, of course, been founded using Taylor’s profits from trading in US cotton…
With slave connections. Nice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79t_gmfue54
Would The Guardian have quit “X” had Trump not won? I reckon not. This looks more like a fit of pique caused by Musk’s support for Trump than any principled stand against the immoral horrors of “X” which have remained consistent since Musk took it over.
If Trump had not won, it is likely that the US Gov’t would increase their on-going investigations and eventual prosecutions of Musk and all his companies. Goal to destroy his businesses and his life, along with same for so many others. Musk risked everything. All In. His style.
A friend commented about X that if you want to know what is really going on it is the only way to get news.
So much for the Grauniad. Throwing their toys out of the pram but taking their ball away so no one else can play with it and them.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
A fake newspaper if ever I saw one. You cannot get a straight take on anything in the Grauniad so I stopped even looking at it despite being free. After all it is only worth as much as anyone is prepared to pay for it and nowt is my bid.
Nuff said.
Socialists, by their nature, have to be capable of juggling two completely opposite propositions at the same time. Such as their support for gay people, but their support for religious groups who kill gay people. Or, supporting democracy, but not for you, just for their friends. It must be exhausting to live in such a fantasy world where everything matters, but nothing matters..
I have hopes that their heads will explode as a result.
Leftists support democracy – just so long as it comes up with the “correct” result.
A bit like the EU. Remember how they forced countries to re-run the Maastricht referendum if it produced the “wrong result?
Take the Red Pill and the Blue Pill at the same time.
The socialists I know stopped reading The Guardian many years ago when it was taken over by neoliberals.
Socialism is a form of mental illness.
Are your friends(?) receiving appropriate treatment?
As ‘stakeholder’ Blobs … have captured Western government departments and intergovernmental agencies … so ordinary people have been increasingly denied any formal mechanisms for confronting politicians with their grievances.
As the British Left became imbued with Marxism – after the Second world War – it also imbibed the Leninist poison that the working class is comprised of ignorant dolts who should be disenfranchised (and preferably replaced). This is the reason the contemporary marxo-fascists (e.g. The Guardian and its readers) believe that the leadership role in society belongs to “those who know better”. The purpose of this arrangement is to prevent politics from being an arena of public choices.
A fundamental left wing driving force is the march towards some distant Utopia where all social and political and moral aspects are perfect.
And the more recent development is the polarisation into those who are committed to the march, and those who are not. From which it ‘follows’ that those who don’t support the march to perfection must be social, political, and moral enemies.
Many years ago, The Guardian ran a TV advert video showing a skinhead pushing over a well-dressed man walking on the pavement.
The camera would pan out showing the skinhead was saving the man from being crushed by falling bricks.
Their catch line was “there is always two sides to every story”.
Unfortunately, now, The Guardian only show one side of the story and that is of the establishment corporatists and their Globalist, neoliberal, warmongering propaganda.
I used to buy the paper for 35 years and have witnessed its decline.
I stopped buying it about 15 years ago and now only comment on their page every time they get something wrong, which is quite often.
They are probably the most dangerous media outlet as they have this air of respectability and balance when in fact, they promote phony wars, bogus man-made climate change and dangerous vaccines.
I also remember that ad and thought is was very powerful, in fact it often pops into my head when shouty idiots can’t/won’t acknowledge there may be different interpretations of a situation.
I also bought the Guardian but not for well over 40 years.
Similar to me, I stopped buying it about ten years ago.
However I am no longer allowed to comment because I fell foul of their “Community Rules” about four years ago.
Needless to say they wouldn’t/couldn’t tell me precisely why the ban – but I think it just might have been my anti vaccine/bigpharma/Vallance comments. I had quite a few arguments with “Dave 4567” or similar who professed him/her/itself to be A Scientist, but I suspect he may well have been 77th
Yes, I was “moderated” for below the line comments years ago so I just troll them now on facebook.
I went to offGuardian when it first started but ended up being banned for berating the “viruses do not exist” clowns.
Wow! I just found that old Guardian advert on Youtube, using your description, and it is superb! Thanks for that. Here’s the link for those who haven’t seen it, or want to remember it:
The Guardian 1986 Points of View
It’s only when you get the whole picture, you can fully understand what’s going in
is something the people making the Guardian are still perfectly aware of. The 2024 version of this ad would continue with It’s our job to prevent this from ever happening!
Too true!
Establishment media do actually present “the other side” normally.
But they do so dismissively through ridicule, parody and distortion.
Just like the BBC then!
Yes. The BBC relies on the UK government for its funding by allowing it to tax the population with a license. The license is compulsory, and you will be fined if don’t have one. The UK government appoints the Director General. Ergo the BBC is “state funded”, part of the UK and Western world “establishment” and is a very poor news media outlet and far from “independent”.
I used to read it online and comment (in the years running up to the EU Referendum) and, despite my clear right-wing views, which were expressed very politely, I managed to never be censored/banned.
I reckon I’d last about 24 hours if I did that now. Dissent from their worldview is not tolerated.
And so has La Vanguardia in Spain.
What good news from Ben Pile, and a great photo of the Argentinian President Javier Milei!
His leading the Argentinians out of the CPO29 is astonishing and superb.
Why Google’s first reference to just about every single question asked is the Guardian? Why most public sector recruitment ads appear in the Guardian? Why Whitehall mandarins have limitless airtime in the Guardian? Are the BBC and the Guardian related?
“Focus groups and opinion polls have taken the place of dialogue between the public and politicians, and such forums are invariably controlled by Blobbish wonks whose views are narrowed even further by their funders’ priorities.”
Succinctly put. They ignore the masses and then present themselves as somehow “progressive”. Not an ounce of honesty between them.
Trump by name & his name has Trumped Cop (out)29 Fancy arranging this latest Private Jet Fest just as Trump forms his team of realists ! Starmer & Milipede now look like the dumbest arse lickers at this phoney gathering, glorious
Put the Chainsaw to Net Zero
Keep tweeting … and support / keep supporting the non-conformist alternative media/podcasts …. the keyboard and broadcasting warriors who are fighting back on our behalf. Many of them are free. Some charge a small amount – little more than the price of a coffee a month – so you CAN afford it.