An anonymous commenter, over at my place, pointed out this article. It’s worth a wider audience.
I’d never heard of the story before, even though it’s been going on for five years and concerns the suppression of a journalist. Usually, journalists close ranks when one of their own is taken down like this, but in this case they seem to have turned their backs.
Hans-Martin Tillack, a German journalist who had been detained by the EU after investigating Brussels fraud, was definitively cleared by the courts. The Belgian government, whose police had raided Tillack’s flat, was ordered to pay damages and costs.
He must have done something really terrible to deserve that. He did. He exposed fraud in the EU parliament and went digging for more. The EU’s anti-corruption squad took care of him. Far from dealing with corruption, it seems this squad is concerned with disposing of those who threaten the continuation of corruption.
Finally they’ve let him go. After five years of uncertainty, he’s been cleared of any wrongdoing, even though no formal charges were ever brought. The EU have sent a very clear message to Eurosceptic reporters – toe the line or we’re coming to get you. Any attempt to show what’s really going on will get you re-educated.
And yet he’s still a Europhile. The Ministry of Truth have released him because despite all this, he still loves Big Brother.
It does all make you wonder if there really is a Room 101 somewhere.