Parliament TV edited specially for you

Sitting on the agenda of tonight's Parliament governing Bureau meeting is a little item, "an "exchange of views" on EuroparlTV". What this anodyne item actually means is that the Parliament will be rubber stamping its new TV channel. EuroparlTV will be going on line soon. It is a web TV station which aims to produce four streaming channels of coverage of the Parliament's activities. This will cost a cool 10 million euros a year for the next four years.

When this subject first came up I blogged it, but back then, almost three years ago the budget was a mere 2.400.000 euros, so it seems both their stomachs and their appetites have increased.

What is truly disturbing about this new project is that the editorial control will be held by the Parliament itself.

"Only an independent editorial team can make lively and interesting programmes," Dutch social-democrat MEP Thijs Berman has told a the ANP news agency.

"Let journalists criticize me when I deserve so. The christian-democrats want to turn it into a sort of Pravda: boring propaganda. And they want to prevent that they are caught sleeping on-air," said Berman, himself a former radio reporter.

The people who have got the contract are Mostra Communication Services who currently, according to their website,

"Over the past ten years or so, we have acquired specific experience in the design and production of Video News Releases (VNR) on behalf of the European institutions. These video reports are usually between 5 and 10 minutes long. Each one relies on journalistic techniques to provide a real-life story which clearly illustrates a specific European issue in fields such as the environment, energy and transport, education and culture, enlargement or justice and home affairs.

The reports are offered to TV journalists and producers free of rights, to encourage coverage of subjects which the broadcasters may not be able to research and shoot themselves, and to enhance the quality of media coverage of important European ssues".

The project has already employed 22 journalists whose key role will be to provide content for local TV stations around the continent. This has ramifications for the employment of both freelance and tenured journalists who cover the goings on here. Why would their producers waste budgets on sending hacks to Brussels and Strasbourg, when the content will be provided by the taxpayer, via the Parliament.

So there you are sitting in your home watching the news and a piece about the story of the day comes up. Say it is the proposed ban on patio heaters. Up pops Fiona Hall to say how she is going to save the planet. Up comes another MEP from the environment committee saying how her report is "Good, but it should go further, future legislation must take into account all heating systems".

No opposition is voiced, because the settled line of the Parliament has been given.

Will the local TV station broadcast a disclaimer over the piece saying "this reportage has been compiled by civil servants in the European Parliament? Will they hell.

Meanwhile another plank in the control of information nestles into the wall of control.

Tomorrow's history today

Reported in the Sun, the Mail (no link) and the Telegraph today is a story about the plans by the EU to create a common European history textbook.

A common history book could contribute to a common European identity and knowledge about what is important for European culture and history," said a German education ministry spokesman.

Well, that's just fine and dandy. I wonder who will write the blasted thing? The idea is based upon a textbook that already exists called the Franco-German Histoire Geschichte which was the brainchild of the Franco-German youth Parliament. Of course there is a problem in that they can only produce a history book that deals with post war history. That way they don't have to mention the war, or the one before that, or the Franco Prussian war or in fact they don't have to mention history at all, because as we all know, history started in reality a mere 50 years ago with the signing of the Treaty of Rome.
What utter tripe. Here we have a line from the text,

"Through its willingness to co-operate with the Third World, its attachment to multilateralism, its dialogue with other regions, the EU appears as a model on the international scene,"

In a small postscript, you might notice that the lead commentator on this story is one Graham Brady, the Tory's shadow minister for Europe. The fellow must think it is Christmas. There he is quietly going about his business and journalists start phoning him up for comments, and sure enough in go the quotations. It's just that he has absolutely no idea what the journalists are talking about.
Why do I know this? Because I happen to know that the story was picked up in the German magazine Focus last week by the UK Independence Party team in Brussels. They gave it to the media as a story, and the media promptly phoned the utterly unaware Brady for comment.

So in the Telegraph, Farage makes a comment under Brady's little bit, in the Mail there is Tom Wise the UK Independence Party education spokesman and in the Sun, after the first edition which at least mentioned the work UKIP had done on the story they were airbrushed out of the later editions leaving dear Graham as the sole defender of British history. Of course the Today program did a piece on the story, and who was the speaker, you guessed it.
At times it makes me spit.