Sanctioned journalist Hüseyin Doğru - Source: mronline.org
(UN 2026) Germany: UN expert warns space for freedom of expression is shrinking amidst growing threats https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/02/germany-un-expert-warns-space-freedom-expression-shrinking-amidst-growing Report by Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression - UN - Feb 6, 2026 - Archive <>
“Many individuals to whom I spoke - including students from the Jewish community, pro-Palestinian solidarity activists, women leaders in local politics, journalists, academics and artists – told me that hateful attacks, often amplified by social media, are making them afraid to speak online or offline,” the expert said.
“While the government has taken these threats seriously, it has relied increasingly on criminalisation and security-oriented approaches to address them. Many of these measures – ranging from heightened protection of officials from public criticism to blanket bans on activists’ slogans and surveillance of organisations on vague grounds of ‘extremism’ – are inconsistent with international human rights standards,” she said.
Khan said the approach risks narrowing the space for diverse, meaningful democratic debate, accelerating social polarisation, and increasing the possibility of the public losing trust in those very democratic institutions that the government is seeking to protect.
(Shaller 2026) Europe Is Sanctioning Critics of Israel and Militarism https://jacobin.com/2026/03/eu-us-sanctions-gaza-russia By Caspar Shaller - Jacobin - Mar 20, 2026 - Archive https://archive.is/QIJqR
One case that deserves special attention is that of German journalist Hüseyin Doğru. Since the EU placed him on a sanctions list in May 2025, he has had no access to his accounts and is not allowed to travel. Doğru lives in Berlin and is much more affected by the sanctions than others. “You can’t even buy me a coffee,” says Doğru during an interview in Berlin. “In theory, I’m not even allowed to help myself to anything in the fridge after my wife went shopping.” The German Bundesbank, which is in charge of enforcing sanctions, granted him an exemption to withdraw a minimum subsistence allowance of €506 a month from his bank account. And even this tiny sum was temporarily blocked by his bank. “I can’t feed my newborn babies,” says Doğru. “On an existential level, you’re reduced to zero.”
The allegedly “violent” demonstration refers to the occupation of Humboldt University in Berlin by pro-Palestinian activists in 2024. Because Doğru reported on the occupation on his website, he is said to have created a platform for the “rioters” to spread the ideology and symbols of terrorist groups such as Hamas. Does reporting on protests against the German government or its allies constitute an exercise of a fundamental right in a democracy or political subversion on behalf of a hostile power? For the EU, it’s the latter.
Doğru’s case raises serious questions about freedom of expression in Europe. Who decides what constitutes acceptable journalism and what constitutes propaganda that must be suppressed? What exactly is disinformation — is it simply a different interpretation of facts? Can opinions be sanctioned as disinformation? The EU is making an example of Doğru. It’s a warning: if journalists report in a way we don’t like, we can destroy your lives. The chilling effect is already having an impact: Doğru has received little (public) solidarity from left-wing politicians, journalists, or the media. Some left-wing publications refused to report on the case at all; Doğru is too tainted by the accusations of being pro-Putin. The few attempts to help Doğru have been blocked. German newspaper Junge Welt wanted to give Doğru a job but was informed by the Bundesbank that that would constitute prohibited economic aid. To date, despite repeated inquiries by his lawyer, Doğru has not gotten a concrete answer as to whether he is allowed to work.
(Fazi 2026) ‘In order to defend democracy, the EU effectively destroys it’ — An Interview with Thomas Fazi https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/interview/european-democracy-shield-thomas-fazi/ by Tamás Maráczi — Hungarian Conservative - Mar 23, 2026 - Archive https://archive.md/OwU5f
At the 2016 US presidential election, there were allegations that they managed to penetrate into the servers of the Democratic National Committee.
There were allegations, which were subsequently completely disproven. Russiagate was a hoax. It’s now been admitted even by the FBI and the American intelligence services. And what we are seeing today in Europe is a European version of Russiagate. In that case, the objective was to stop Trump from getting into the White House. And today, the kind of Euro Russiagate is aimed at all populist or anti-establishment parties that threaten the status quo and the establishment. Let’s not forget that just over a year ago in Romania, an entire election was annulled on grounds of alleged Russian interference, of Russia allegedly running some kind of disinformation scheme on TikTok that supposedly had convinced voters to vote for the independent populist candidate who ended up winning that first round of the elections. Well, they provided no evidence whatsoever for that alleged disinformation scheme. And even TikTok claimed that there was no evidence of this manipulation.
So you claim that the EU itself interfered in the election process in Romania. What’s the proof?
Well, I’ve read hundreds of pages of reports about this, and I tracked all the EU funding, all the EU money that goes to NGOs, media, and universities across Europe to essentially promote pro-EU narratives and the Brussels agenda. What the EU is running here is a scheme very similar to what USAID has done for many years around the world, essentially sending money to NGOs and alleged independent media outlets in third countries to promote America’s economic and geopolitical interests. Now the European Union does exactly the same thing. It uses these funds to manipulate civil society in countries to promote its own interests and agenda. And the EU runs these schemes in member states, especially in countries that are ruled by Eurosceptic governments. In Hungary and Poland, the EU has channelled huge amounts of funds.
How many NGOs, think tanks, or media outlets receive this financing from the European Commission annually?
We know that there are thousands of ‘NGO’s across Europe who receive money from the European Commission. It’s impossible to track the exact number, also because the definition of what exactly is an NGO isn’t clear, even in the EU’s own databases. But through the CERF programme, the EU has supported, since 2021, more than 3000 projects and thousands of NGOs. So it’s a very vast ecosystem. What has happened over the past decade is that, essentially, the political establishment has cultivated a fake civil society. How can you claim to be an NGO when most of your money comes from the political establishment, the political institutions, and in many cases, the European Union itself? You can’t claim to really be conveying the aspirations of civil society to the political institutions. What you’re doing, inevitably, is the opposite. You become a tool for the political establishment to convey their ideas and their ideology to public opinion. So it’s a literal inversion of what NGOs and civil society should do. The problem is that most of the NGOs that are operating today are not independent, but are simply extensions of the political establishment.
Started: Tue, Apr 7, 2026
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