Blair Calls For Chinese Style Net Controls In the UK

2007-06-24

Richard Moore

Original source URL:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2007/120607Blair_media.htm

Prisonplanet.com

Blair Calls For Chinese Style Net Controls In the UK
Declares war on "pernicious conspiracy theory" media coverage
Steve Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Related Article: Internet Doomsday Creeps Closer

Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair has 
savaged online media today in a speech in which 
he declared war on the free press by hinting at 
new restrictions on internet journalism and 
suggested that the media should be brought more 
into line with the government.

Blair complained that the media was too "feral" 
(i.e. not tamed by the government) and referring 
to online journalism stated:

"In fact, the new forms can be even more 
pernicious, less balanced, more intent on the 
latest conspiracy theory multiplied by five."

This is an outright call for a crackdown on the 
free press. Blair is out in the open here saying 
the media is too independent of the government, 
he is admitting that the freedom with which the 
media, especially online, is now operating is 
hurting his government and its agenda.

Despite the fact that it is the government itself 
that has consistently lied to and refused to 
listen to the British people, Blair blamed the 
media for an undermining of trust in the 
government amongst the people and further accused 
the media of being responsible for a moral 
downturn in Britain.

"The damage saps the country's confidence and 
self-belief; it undermines its assessment of 
itself, its institutions; and above all, it 
reduces our capacity to take the right decisions, 
in the right spirit for our future.'' Blair 
stated.

This is rich given the fact that when New Labour 
came into power in 1997 Blair's government 
quickly became masters of spin, using the media 
as a tool of hype to whip up a frenzy of positive 
attention towards itself.

Blair even admitted that his government readily 
did this and is to blame for what he now sees as 
a brutal backlash:

''We paid inordinate attention in the early days 
of New Labour to courting, assuaging, and 
persuading the media ....such an attitude ran the 
risk of fuelling the trends in communications 
that I am about to question.'' Blair stated.

So there you have it, the government used and 
spat out the media and now it doesn't like the 
fact that it is no longer trusted and is 
scrutinized as if under a microscope, especially 
by the independent and online media which does 
not pander to corporate masters.

Therefore Blair's solution is to bring in an 
online journalism regulator to decide what is 
"balanced" reporting and what is not. Such a move 
is exactly the kind of thing that has been 
witnessed in Communist China in an effort to 
crackdown on criticism of the government there.

Blair has recently been under the media 
microscope concerning the BAE cover up over Saudi 
arms dealing. Before that he was subject to 
scrutiny and twice questioned by police over the 
cash for honours scandal where peerages were 
handed out by the government in exchange for 
financial favours. No doubt these are the kind of 
"conspiracy theories" Mr Blair wishes the media 
to be unable to cover, along with the scores of 
lies he told in the lead up to the Iraq war.

Blair can whine and whine all day long but the 
fact is it is the openness with which his 
government has conducted its criminal actions and 
its own attempts to use the free press as a 
propaganda arm that has led to a surge in media 
scrutiny.

There is nothing he nor his elite masters can do 
to win this battle save shutting down the 
internet and free speech completely and risking 
revolution.

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