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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“Black Political Commentator Calvin Robertson”
Ah, but you see Robertson ain’t black:
Biden: “you ain’t black”
So he wouldn’t count towards the Church’s diversity scores and in fact it would be racist to give him the post. All conservative promoting actions are racist.
Tucker: Inflation is proof the people in charge are reckless and stupid
Biden can talk!
“He ain’t President!” He told us himself that is Kamala Harris.
She talks more gibberish he does.
Everyone makes lousy speeches during their lifetime, god knows I’ve delivered some howlers but, whilst they barely raised a titter, they at least made sense.
Harris, perhaps even more than Biden, just leaves people bewildered.
You talk crap all day every day on here!!
And now he’s facing a backlash from you with your deep and insightful and well argued observations is he? Err… that would be a no from me.
I am devastated not to have your total backing
I’m sure you are and rightly so.
She was not well-known and “popular” for her speeches.
And that shows that the church of England is no longer Christian, commies I suggest!
Maybe, if you’re referring to the Bishops. The laity is far from being communist.
“Ah, but you see Robertson ain’t black”
True: he’s mixed race.
I see you’re using the same definitions that the apartheid era South Africa used.
Is it inaccurate to call him mixed race?
Would you describe someone with one black and seven white great grandparents as black?
“Would you describe someone with one black and seven white great grandparents as black?”
To whom, the police?
Why is it wrong of me to call him mixed race when he clearly has both sub-Saharan African and European ancestry?
How do you know that? based on his appearance he could be an Arab.
He’s called Calvin Robertson.
That strongly suggests he’s not an Arab.
As does the fact that he’s described as black.
Err… He’s not called Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu either.
Why are people who are half-white labelled ‘black’ instead of ‘white’?
Could be ‘racism’? Default towards the currently dominant model?
It isn’t
Would you describe me as “mixed race”? Or would you describe me as some irritating commenter on the Daily Sceptic, named after the hero of an Anglo Saxon poem?
I have absolutely no information about your ancestry, so why would I use any racial term to describe you?
Precisely, but apparently you have complete access to Calvin Robinson’s DNA.
My DNA indicates that I have English/Irish/Welsh/Scottish and Norwegian ancestry. So am I mixed race or do you judge race by skin pigmentation only?
“Precisely, but apparently you have complete access to Calvin Robertson’s DNA.”
No, but I have his appearance and name.
All I can tell about you is that you’re not very bright and not very well read (you think English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish are 4 distinct ethnicities, FGS.)
His name means nothing. Is Eddie Murphy from Dublin? And regarding his appearance, he looks like he could be the Egyptian actor Emad Hamdy’s son.
As for your rebuke questioning my IQ, and the depth of my reading, are you claiming that blond-haired blue-eyed Norwegians are ethnically identical to the Celts? Clearly you’re not or you would have said “…you think English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Norwegian are 5 distinct ethnicities…”. The late Chancellor of the Third Reich had his doubts, like you, and the very fact that a DNA test is able to identify genetic traits that are not common to the four home nations and to the Norwegians supports that view.
I await your next insult.
NB You wrote: “He’s called Calvin Robertson.” Well, no he’s not, his name is Calvin Robinson. I guess you haven’t read widely enough to know that.
Wow, two downticks for correctly pointing out Nearhorburian’s obvious and inexcusable mistake of referring to Calvin Robinson as Calvin Robertson.
Six downticks now. I wonder if the conviction of some you on here that Calvin Robinson’s surname is actually Robertson has anything to do with a jam manufactures logo and a barely supressed racial prejudice?
Would he be from the Swiss Family Robinson by any chance?
I don’t believe that he’s featured in any Disney movie, why do you ask?
I’m new to this. But to me you sound like a silly, shallow, self-absorbed, arrogant, posturing dimwit. Of whatever colour or ethnicity. Mine is a ”mixed race” family and it’s people like YOU who are the root of all divisive evil in this present world from which families like mine may suffer.
No. I think the word ”plonker” springs more readily to mind. Or even ”tosser” if you think it more appropriate. (You may have to look up the word ”appropriate” – it’s nothing to do with ”heroic”, by the way.)
Why would anyone want to work for the current “Church of England” ?.
Is it even a Church any longer? What does it actually believe in ?
What is even ‘English’ about it?
How long before it changes its name to the ‘Church of Diversity Training’?
I do respect Calvin Robertson but isn’t his wish to become a C of E vicar just nostalgia for something that no longer really exists – as this blocking of his ambition so clearly illustrates?
“Schism” used to be a useful resort to allow and project differences of religious interpretation – its return to fashion is long overdue and Calvin might find himself among like minds rather than in permanent conflict with the Woke.
Britain is not ‘racist,’ but those who claim that it is often are!
What does it actually believe in ?
Marx worship
Does it even believe in that ?
No, the CofE’s principal beliefs are:
Perhaps he has an ambition to restore it to its former glory.
‘Archbishop of Canterbury, Calvin Robertson’ has an attractive cadence.
It does indeed.
just nostalgia for something that no longer really exists
That could apply to people joining todays Conservative & Labour parties to become MPs. Both husks of their former selves.
Heaven forbid – Bishop Robertson is, it is claimed, married to a Mr. Mohan Sharma.
Archbishop Calvin Robinson would sound much better, what with him actually being a Christian, unlike the Canadian heretic, Kevin Robertson.
And perhaps he doesn’t aspire to those heights. Perhaps he just wants to make a difference. Or doesn’t the idea of honour and decency register with you?
Perhaps there are some noble people who still think they might save it. Perhaps that’s to be admired – or is there nothing left in this world that is admirable and selfless? Is everything and everybody corrupt and selfish?
Robertson!!!??? This whole article is a micro aggression!!!
YJCMTSU
“Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith. Which faith unless every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the catholic faith is this: that Britain is institutionally racist.”
I have been saying for two years now that the Church of England is finished and that Welby will be the last Archbishop of Canterbury.
Unless Welby comes to new wisdom, this is it.
Well, we are told that miracles can still happen. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
A shoe-in by the Deep State…. no ” new wisdom” possible.
The one before him was nearly as bad – Rowan Williams wasn’t it? He was a Blair appointment…..
I suspect that Welby is from the wef….. a traitor brought in to bring down what is left of the CofE. He is doing rather well!
I was once a Vicar in the Cof E but left because a divorced woman was consecrated bishop in direct defiance of St Paul’s instructions. It led to 10 years on the dole but I have never regretted it. I am now, like Bishop Nazir Ali, a Catholic and relish the faith, the brotherhood and the sacramental life.
Nice to hear from someone of principle.
Mmmmmmmm, not sure that this displays principles? Hasn’t Stroflex displayed the Groucho Marx maxim, “if you don’t like my principles then I have others!”
He’s left the CofE over one issue & joined another who have quite a pile of fundamental differences to the Cof E.
I hold no brief for the CofE but he did. I’m not saying he was wrong to swap but it wasn’t over a principle.
The Church of England is dead, dead and rotten. We need a new church, a church for Christians. Calvin Robinson is pointing the way.
Well said, Annie.
Black political commentator, and white bishop. Why is the colour of someone’s skin their defining attribute? It’s incredibly divisive.
The CoE is making it a race thing, not Robertson.
Why would a Church have a ‘race policy’?
I was thinking more generally, concerning comments in the MSM such as ‘the first black … this’, or ‘the first black … that’, or so-and-so ‘… is a black actress …’. In fact ‘black’ is a euphemism for ‘non-white’. No wonder racial tensions are increasing in society, if in fact they are.
They definitely are. Straight white men have had enough of all this crap
The CoE seems to have forgotten Christs teaching about forgiveness and restitution.
What sin cannot be forgiven..? What soul cannot repent..?
What doesCalvin Robinson need to repent of?
Calvin doesn’t need to repent anything. The CoE are taking fixed positions on social not spiritual matters, and if you don’t agree, you are a heretic and damned without recourse or hope of redemption.
Of what does Calvin need to repent? Why, nothing more than not toeing the Establishment line.
Welby is terrified Calvin will launch into some Jackson Five numbers and actually make the CoE fun.
“Can’t you see that ray of hope,
Somebody finally saw the light,
They’re gonna send our brothers home.
It’s gonna be all right yeah”
Calvin wants to wear a frock,
To push his profile higher,
He’ll get the job he wants for sure,
God help the young boy’s choir
So what you’re saying is [insert anti-clerical cliché here]?
He looks creepy. Mark my words he’s a bad ‘un
Why not get God to put in an appearance and put an end to all this divisiveness.
Oh forgot he, she, it, them don’t exist and the world, galaxy, universe will one day end forever and forever amen.
Your arguments are so compelling you ought to debate William Lane Craig, or John Lennox.
Why do you believe that the universe came into existence?
Why do you believe that it will cease to exist?
Because the hydrogen will run out.
OMG! It’ll be all those hydrogen powered cars Renault built in order to save the planet.
You obviously don’t know about nuclear fusion and how stars function. Nice to see how ignorant you are.
Yes that’ll be it, I’m just not up to date with The Science. But I’m trying hard to understand. So let me see if I get it – there will come a time when hydrogen will no longer exist because the stars will have used up every hydrogen atom in the Universe. And if hydrogen doesn’t exist then nothing at all exists. Is that right? Is that what you’re claiming will happen according to our present understanding of physics, cosmology and psychohistory? Well I never. You learn something every day. Now tell me about AGW and how a bloke with a todger can give birth.
All the big organized religions committed suicide during the Corona panic. Religious leaders right up to the pope have essentially admitted that they neither believe in their own deities nor their teachings by simply becoming vessels for whatever highly invasive, non-medical miracle cure Corona’s witnesses wanted to try today. This is especially true for the so-called Christian ones. Forcing people into social isolation, separating children from their parents and pressuring people into getting potentially harmful injections of no conceivable value to them are not acts of love and an archbishop of X or pope of Z who claims otherwise is no Christian.
God bless Calvin Robinson. May his message of a spiritual Christianity be heard far and wide, and may the woke moneychangers (in the sense of being obsessed with temporal values) be cast out from the Church.
“denying institutional racism”
First of all, define “institutional racism.”
Which institutions? All of them? And exactly how are they racist? Be specific, and give exact details.
presumably, this Bishop would have a problem with Zuby, a black rap artist who called out BLM as a scam, and doesn’t believe the UK is “institutionally racist.”
Such blanket accusations are completely non-specific, and are impossible to argue against, precisely because no specific details or examples are ever given.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R1GS0SR5Y5s
Yep, white people telling black people that they are wrong about racsim – white people are racist and they don’t get it because they’re black people, and as white people they absolutely know – is about as good an example of how far left society has fallen. The left are a cancer on society.
Someone will correct this with the right numbers but Robinson put out a Christmas message that had an order of magnitude more views than Welby & about 10 orders of magnitude more views than the various Bishops. This is the issue, he would represent a power across the water.
Punishment for being on GB News.
Oh the irony- the liberal left is engaged in what we might call cultural imperialism – white European people telling black people, and other ethnicities, how to live and what to think.
“We like black people in the church but we do insist that they agree with our view of them.”, a spokesman may or may not have added.
That White Bishop must be a KPMG employee. He’s rid himself of all his unconscious biases, leaving only the conscious ones.
I struggle with the Church of Scotland for the very same reasons. I have seen the Rev William Phillips from the Tron Church in Glasgow on Neil Oliver’s show and I have attended a service. Delightful.
Yes, let’s keep dividing the nation and others with this racist theme. For it to reach the level of the C of E getting involved, you know it is a con job. Just in Essex for a few days. Multi ethnicity kind of a place. Got the impression this is how things were meant to be. Anyone else sick and tired of those attempting to divide. It is a false narrative. Recognise it for what it is, a fraud.
These C of E “Archbishops” and “bishops” won’t be happy until the C of E has no congregations and the great cathedrals are all mosques.
White Bishop to Black Pawn – obviously no contest
“Shut up and stop saying that you’re not oppressed” about sums up the lunacy of the church’s position.
Robinson is a good egg, and would do much better in a more evangelical church. You know, one more concerned with souls than property values.
On the Church of England:
Indeed. Number 1 is part of their general accountability-avoidance strategy – which they are very successful at, having had hundreds of years’ experience!
The only people who can reign in this self-serving organisation are MPs, and none of them seem remotely interested as it’s not seen as a vote-winner. This, in turn, is largely because most people in the country are largely apathetic – they aren’t religious, and regard the CofE as having no power or infliuence (incorrect), and being unworldly and bumbling but well-meaning – all also incorrect, but it’s an image which the CofE appears to intentionally cultivate.
The C of E demonstrating that it understands irony.