Access to information – and indeed the dissemination of it – has been massively democratised over the last quarter century. You no longer need to have news bureaus dotted across continents and a staff of hundreds to be in the news business. We live in a world where news can be garnered from myriad, heterodox sources – good, malign, and indifferent. This trend has inevitably brought with it the spread of nonsensical beliefs on both Left and Right. When all can air their views, bad ideas will spread alongside worthy ones.
But what is the best response to the spread of nonsense? One strategy is the stereotypical knee jerk answer – something must be done. And that something is inevitably state censorship, or rather Europe-wide regulation of news and social media. The European Union is currently debating both the Digital Services Act and the Orwellian sounding European Media Freedom Act. One thing it is not about is expanding the freedom of the European media –rather it envisages continent wide media regulation.
But there is an alternative strategy. Instead of increased regulation might not the answer be to insert new voices into the media landscape? Voices that have no truck with conspiratorial nonsense, but will proudly speak out against a stifling orthodoxy that is all too prevalent among those outlets reporting on what is happening in the European Union’s institutions.
This is where Brussels Signal comes in. The answer to false news is not more regulation, but a more diverse media landscape. Conspiratorial thinking thrives where only one dominant voice is heard. We are a new voice that is willing to challenge the consensus. As the over 1,350 pieces we have already published show, we report the news straight – giving a fair hearing to all sides. Our comment pieces are what they should be – opinionated. We will ask the questions of the European institutions others are too fearful to ask. We are not frightened to take positions contrary to the hegemonic Brussels weltanschauung. Indeed, if the conformist assumptions are right, challenging them will only strengthen their arguments.
We will be holding our launch reception in the heart of Brussels on October 24. Our speakers include commentator Konstantin Kisin – co-host of the influential podcast Triggernometry and author of the bestseller An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West – and British journalist and campaigner Louise Perry, author of The Case Against the Sexual Revolution.
Both have been outspoken champions of free speech, equally defending the right to be heard of those they vehemently opposes as those they agrees with. Their approaches align with ours.
Our launch will celebrate the core European value of free speech – and how it is today under siege from both bureaucratic conformism and a growing politically progressive groupthink. It is time for this sclerotic status quo to be challenged.
I hope you can join us on this journey.
