Thursday 2 February 2012

Cheap At Half The Price

Via Gawain, we find that the EU have been 'nudging' the European media with the EU Health Prize for Journalists.

The aim being ...
... about getting journalists around the EU to write articles for their respective outlets that promote the EU line.
The EU Health Prize for Journalists is awarded to stimulate high-quality journalism that raises awareness of issues related to healthcare and patients' rights. The Prize is part of the "Europe for patients" campaign, highlighting 12 health policy initiatives. All these are bound by a common goal: better healthcare for all in Europe.
Or as John Dalli puts it "to stimulate high-quality journalism, with particular focus on the European Dimension" So successful is it that 358 hacks from the 27 submitted almost 500 articles. Given the prizes amount to 13,000 EUR that is bloody good value for money at 26 EUR per published article.
Indeed it is.

As you might expect, there was a special category set aside for articles which address smoking. Or rather, the stopping of it. The short list is here, and the prize winner concerned a day in the life of a Polish dentist.

Isn't it nice to see another way that your taxes are used to denormalise you, eh? This time by effectively buying column inches on your behalf. Oh yeah, and did I mention that John Dalli, who initiates all this stuff as the relevant Commissioner - and like all of the anti-smoking organisations he bows to - is entirely unelected?

Or, as Gawain points out.
Look, if the BMJ or some other Health publication wants to run a Journalism prize across Europe, not problem at all. But it is wrong for such an award to be sponsored by the EU, with taxpayers money.
Quite.


5 comments:

Thomas said...

A chance to make the Fuhrer proud, and get paid for it at the same time - what fun!

Sam Duncan said...

Since when has winning prizes from the State for pushing its propaganda been “high quality journalism”? And they wonder why nobody with an ounce of sense trusts the legacy media any more. If I were a hack, I'd be ashamed to have anything even considered for this.

ianrthorpe said...

Got to encourage the Thought Police agents get the "message" out. There is always a risk that people will start thinking for themselves.

Richard Hansen said...

Odd that the EU health initiatives, which we are told are firmly grounded in science, truly evidenced based and enacted for purposes of protecting public health and somehow enhancing not only public health, but the overall quality of life as well, do not, it seems, garner any journalistic interest in and of their own accord and their purported sweeping public support or by virtue of the pure nobility and efficacy to which they make claim.

So significant, it seems, is this lack of journalistic interest, that it has evidently become necessary to offer financial awards (bribes) to journalists in a half-baked competition to provide "high quality(fiction)" articles to 'raise awareness' (distort the truth) of the "Europe for Patients" campaign's health policy effronteries!  

To borrow, and reshape some wisdom from a Guido Fawkes observation:

Better health policies that require "paid-for" journalism to raise awareness and feign public support and efficacy are no more 'better health policies' than a prostitute is your girlfriend. 

moonrakin said...

 Errm.. prizes for copy 'n paste ?  This sounds like more of the envy inducing taxpayer funded largesse bestowed for toeing the line tactics used on sticky fingered petty provincial politicians to get them on side - like the erm... Kinnocks (and likely a few strategically sprinkled around the member states).

It seems they are reinforcing the architecture of patronage and conformity. I wonder if they'll give a nice prize for a thorough fisking of a policy?