Julian Assange
631 weeks of deprivation of liberty for telling the truth
631 weeks of deprivation of liberty for telling the truth
When an individual or an organization constitutes a risk for the power in place, or could become dangerous for the latter, the habits are generally not — yet — in Belgium to the physical elimination of the dissident. Constantly trying to say what they don’t do and do what they don’t say, armed with their media arm, governments can’t name their censorship, so they retreat to rules they themselves have enacted. In this mafia-like system, the organizations that are supposed to constitute safeguards against « deviations » are in fact only structures at the service of the order in place, only present to give the illusion of a possible contestation. A retaliatory measure for them is therefore to deprive the recalcitrant of the public money they are supposed to receive.
Kairos has benefited from the periodical press aid of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation since 2014, which supports the publishers of a press title. If we met all the conditions to benefit from a small part of the taxpayers’ money, it was however obvious that not everyone would like it, which is quite normal… except when these people are in power. Olivier Marroy was able to express this on September 28 in a parliamentary commission, a great defender of just causes who was outraged that« public funds are used to finance such a rag », speaking of the newspaper Kairos. However, we had never seen the man outraged, for example: that the Walloon government earns money with the National Arms Factory of Herstal; that money — still public — is distributed to pharmaceutical companies; that flood victims are still without housing months after the floods(1)that millions of euros are distributed to the media of power.
Relying on the Pavlovian reflex that makes journalists and politicians salivate at the slightest publication that deviates from their doctrinal path, the deputy lets loose, which will lead us, in front of the insult, to write to the subsidizing power, namely the cabinet of the minister Bénédicte Linard(2).
The minister replied to us and introduced her letter in this way:
At the end of his letter, we were tacitly warned of the future that was in store for us:
Here is my answer to the letter whose extracts are reproduced above:
Having nothing to back up the catch-all assertion of « conspiracy theories » and« fakenews », no complaint to file against Kairos média, they used other, more insidious techniques. From now on, in order to receive aid to the periodical press, it will be necessary to be a member of the Authority for the Self-Regulation of Journalistic Ethics (AADJ(3)).
Formed by co-option like other self-instituted and self-regulated bodies, AADJ is now indirectly vested with the power to decide whether a publisher is eligible for periodical support, since it can ultimately decide whether or not to join.
As members of the AADJ, notably: François Ryckmans (who was in the accreditation commission for the press card and notably decided not to renew it for me), Martine Simonis (secretary general of the AJP), who responds to the multiple censures and police violence we are subjected to with silence, except when it is a question of copying and pasting the complaints of the mainstream media towards me, like that of Philippe Delusinne (boss of RTL), also at the AADJ, also effective member of the Commission of appeal for the press card (of which also André Linard, the father of the current minister of the media, is a member(4)); Gilles Milecan(5) (AJP lawyer, IPM), Gabrielle Lefèvre (President of the Press Card Accreditation Commission). The full members are all from the AJP, so it is obvious that from now on it will be the AJP that will decide if we are entitled to the subsidies or not…
The ADDJ is financed by media publishers and journalists and has a budget of 160,000 euros. The AJP receives a subsidy from the French Community. It depends on the government of the French Community and therefore directly on the Minister of Media.
A big family, made up of members who are certainly not fond of seeing Kairos continue to thrive, and who manage to make censorship look like compliance.
