UNDER ATTACK

In any country with a democratic form of government, it is an imperative (built into the system) that there should and must be freedom of information to the general public from both the government and any other source; I regard this as one of the corner-stones of democracy as I understand the word.

So, you can imagine my a) surprise and b) disgust when I learn that the British government, the BBC and an organisation called Ofcom (which is supposed to represent the views of the public on matters relating to telecommunications), are jointly trying to stop foreign television companies from relaying their news programmes into the UK by satellite.

It is well-known almost globally that the BBC (once a legend in terms of honest and valuable reporting) has turned into a government “lap-dog” only willing to tell/sell parliamentary crap to an unsuspecting general public (who pay considerably each year for this privilege). In my mind I cannot relate this trend to that of true democracy; what I am seeing and hearing is a reduction in the degree of freedom (of information) the average individual has. IF this action takes place and foreign companies are in fact banned, I will regard this as an end to several hundreds of years of continuous fighting for a sacred cause – democracy – it will have perished in a toxic cloud of on-going “dumbing-down” of news, of mediocre “sound-.bites” and a total black-out of anything that does not bring credit to the government or is considered too inflammatory for the “sheep”.

If I sound pissed, it is because I am.  This is NOT the country or set of attitudes I was brought up to respect – it is a bastardised, sanitised apology for democracy where there is only one voice – that of the government. Wherever you are reading this, please make sure word is passed to as many people as possible – democracy is under attack.

A final word: someone out there tell me where I can find contentment, democracy in its true form and where I can live without feeling an alien from another planet…

Until next time (and still looking),

Peripatetic Scribe