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SO WE NOW know the extent of cuts which will be felt across government departments and across society following the announcement in the Dáil today by Brendan Howlin.
The Minister for Public Expenditure Reform said today that as part of €2.2 billion in savings there will be a €1.4 billion reduction in day-to-day spending across government.
For the full details see Howlin’s speech here and here’s some pictures from the day:
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Our own government would be doing a long stretch.
@Shayno O’Donnchadha: As would everyone in INM…..
Meanwhile in the EU the Group Editor in Chief of Independent News and Media has been appointed to a European Commission group which aims to tackle ‘fake news’…. Fake news is a problem but I’ve a horrible feeling governments will use it as an excuse to settle old scores and shape the news for their own ends… https://www.rte.ie/amp/933027/
@Vigo the Carpathian: Ming has a good video up on the subject of our main fake news outlet getting that job of gatekeeper. He has an ex-INM journalist in tow to get the point across whist demanding answers. It seems the EU are not impressed.
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: It’s just mind boggling…With that papers connection to “redacted” and obvious government bias. I actually thought I’d misread Mings post when I saw it..I thought he was hitting “the whacky” or something until I checked it out…
@Vigo the Carpathian: That’s the very reason why such legislation is so dangerous. When such laws are passed we then depend on whether our politicians are moral enough not to encroach on the use of even more widespread censorship. There lies the death of the free press.
@Vigo the Carpathian: I wonder what Gemma O’Doherty thinks about that…..
Orwellian, who decides what’s fake news.
@Jointheclubtoo: Our establishment betters of course. They have nothing but our best interests in mind you see.
@Jointheclubtoo: In Ireland, if it doesn’t line up with the FFG establishment agenda….it’s fake news.
Startling move. Who decides the definition of fake news? Freedom of the press means the press can print and criticize freely. Yes, Fake News is not ideal but we should not ban people from saying or writing whatever they wish. It’s up to the people to sieve through factual information and then form an opinion rather than jump to authoritarian measures.
Fake news…!
Don’t forget to include a public flogging with the jail term
That’s going a bit far, but I’ll grant that bypassing the old vegetable-throwing penalty makes a better scary headline: “Stock in stocks drops!”
It says in The Koran that Mohammed split the moon in two and put it back together… surely that constitutes fake news?
@Fifty Shades of Sé: … and the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead pft
Delicious irony here…it is the “liberal” MSM who first decided that anti-Western Establishment information on the internet (especially on social media sites) was “fake news”.
Then Trump applied the term back to the same MSM – and now Governments across the globe using the “liberal” demands to suppress “fake news” – in order to suppress “liberal” (aka western neoliberal imperialism) opinion!
Karma
Haven’t Germany said they’ll fine Facebook 50 million quid if they don’t take down “fake news”? The situation in Malaysia is probably the logical conclusion of where the west is heading.
We should implement this, enforce it on those who make make lies about my party. Would teach them a lesson.
Rightly so.
@Dave C: Wrong on every level!
With so much of the media in the hands of wealthy billionaires, it’s hard to work out what is real news from what is the stuff they are trying to feed the masses. Add to that state sponsored news, large minority groups in so many countries with an emotional rather than a fact based bias, and it’s hard to see a way for truth to survive.
@David Knight: Truth is independent of all that. This reads as if the governments there have been in the habit of expecting instant trust and credibility. Naturally people who read lies are more inclined to question everything and reserve their opinion. I doubt that the way to earn popular respect is to fine people for coming out with rubbish for the novelty value.
have your say