Freedom of Speech in the "Liberal World Order": German Journalist Alina Lipp Persecuted and Facing 3 Years in Prison for Coverage of Ukraine Conflict

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So this is what freedom of speech looks like in the “liberal world order”. I note there is nothing “liberal” about it.

Via Aletho News:

Alina Lipp, an independent German journalist and blogger is facing a criminal probe [in Germany] over her ‘endorsement’ of Russia’s ‘illegal aggressive war’ against Ukraine. Lipp has told Russian media she only does what any journalist would do – document what is happening around her. If found guilty, she could face a fine or up to three years behind bars.

On Saturday, RT DE interviewed Lipp about her professional work and the ongoing investigation.

The journalist contended that she is ‘doing interviews with people in Donetsk and merely translating them into German.’

Lipp explains her situation in this video:

Excerpts of Lipp’s dialogue from the video:

First, they deleted my material on the internet, then they blocked my bank account, blocked the bank account of my father, and yesterday I got this letter that they opened a criminal case against me.

For Germans, the support of the special operation of Russia in Ukraine is already a criminal act for which you can […] get three years in prison.

They are writing that they are not going to invite me to a hearing because this would ‘disturb the investigations’.

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I thought Germans had rejected Nazism. Apparently, it’s not okay to say bad things about Nazis in Germany again.

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They haven’t suspended anything. They’ve only driven it a bit farther underground. I took my unit for Summer Camp to Danneaueshinggen in 1994, in SW Germany. Struck me way back then the Krauts were still Nazis, just better mannered.

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Way back then, the Roman Catholic Church forced Galileo to disown his astronomical observations. As the French would say – Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

Let’s hope that none of the people the lady interviewed in the Donbas said anything negative about the Global Warming Scam. If she broadcast anything like that, she might be facing the death penalty! “Narrative Uber Alles”.

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Hi Deveraux,

That is a very intruiging observation. Perhaps sometime you could let us know some specifics that have given you this impression?

On trips to Europe in the early 2000s, I was picking up very bad vibes from the German tourists encountered tangentially. I was not anticipating this; in fact I was disposed to find the opposite, based on reports from other family members. But the bad little pings never stopped coming.

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Jzdro,

Can’t say anything specific, but it was a general attitude. They still hated Jews, but then most of Europe hates Jews. I once saw in a book it was that the various “Christians” now saw themselves as the new Chosen People and it was darn inconvenient to have the “old” Chosen People still among them. They also hated the Eastern Europeans, showing open disdain and arrogance. WE Americans were kind of left alone but I thought that related to us being “rich” - and by their standards having poor taste, something they could then feel superior about. That, too, is a general European attitude. They were decidedly less friendly if you spoke English than if you spoke French or Italian. They were still the “ubermench” in attitude. My perspective has long been personified in the old joke, “Germans get $4 haircuts. - a $1 a side”.

Interestingly no one else in Europe liked the Germans. There is a list of pejoratives in the other languages referring to Germans, as there is referring to Jews, but the feeling is different. Perhaps it’s the usual German arrogance, perhaps the fact twice in a century they attempted to conquer Europe with arms; at that time they had not yet done so economically as they would shortly later. Perhaps it was that they swarmed the contitnent with tourists, none of. whom bought anything local but just occupied the nice spots. Local economies don’t thrive on a tourist just sitting there, not buying anything.

I’ve only been to Germany twice, once in ‘64, and the 2nd time in ‘93 I think it was. In ‘64 I was travelling by train from Paris to Vienna. In Gerrmany at one of the stops, this middle-aged man was getting this baka sealed with her smallish suitcase up on the rack above. When he left, one of the Germans in the compartment spit out “Bugaritsa” - which in Serbian would. translate to “Bulgarian” female case. It was said. with such. obvious hate it rather shocked me, a naive 17-y/o American youth then.

I am always intrigued by the fact American Progressivism was created in America, exported via grad students to German universities, then brought back with the veneer of respectability from Germany. Somewhere I read Hitler had at his nightstand a copy of “The Passing of the Great Race” by. Madison Grant, a great friend of Teddy Roosevelt. That book was the basis of the whole Eugenics movement in America pre-WWII. American universities had departments of Eugenics formed. Margaret Sanger, the creator of Planned Parenthood, was a great eugenics proponent. It’s only when the Germans started wholesale applying these “principles” that the departments quietly disappeared, and today you don’t find much, if any, mention of either Madison Grant (except as the creator of the American Forest Ranger system, at TR’s behest) OR his book.

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I suppose Gavin would argue it was Germany’s right to invade Poland in 1939, because the area of Poland had once been held by Germany, since he argues Russia has the right to invade Ukraine for just those same reasons. I prefer the argument that Ukraine, as Poland in 1939 and the European War subsequently, are European problems, things we ought not to have a lot of concern over. Notice that if you look at WWII history and timeline, you find America in general was not interested in gettting involved in an European land war. That argument stood then and stands now.

The problem is that our current “progressive” administration has put Europe at a disadvantage vis a vis Russia, something that Trump solved without a military conflict. The more you look at facts the more obvious it is that Trump was good for not only America but the world.

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Not really. Like most people in the West, I was brought up with the “Good War” myth, where Germany was evil and acted entirely unprovoked. But an education is a great thing, and I eventually learned about all the provocations which had been imposed on Germany over the previous decades. That, of course, does not excuse the decision the Germans made to invade Poland in 1939 – but it does make it understandable. What I still do not understand is why when German & the USSR jointly invaded Poland, the English & French decided to declare war on Germany while making the USSR an ally. Nor do I understand why having started a war to defend Poland, the English then abandoned Poland to the USSR.

The analogous situation today is the Daily Mail view that one day in 2022, Russia decided to invade the Ukraine for no good reason, or maybe because they want to take over the world – completely ignoring the provocations which the West has been making since about 2005, and completely ignoring the vicious civil war which the Kiev rulers had been waging against ethnic Russians in the Ukraine for the prior 8 blood-stained years. Again, understanding reality does not excuse the Russian intervention in that ongoing civil war on their borders – but it does make it understandable.

On that, we are in complete agreement!

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Hi Deveraux,

Jew-hatred thinly disguised as prompt, brittle criticism of Israelis is what repeatedly gave me the gags. For example, at a professional meeting, this young woman pointedly vented to me, a new acquaintance, about the behavior of that Israeli man when (A) there was no reason to vent same to me, unless to establish something; (B) the man’s behavior was perfectly polite, although it inadvertantly inconvenienced her for a few heartbeats of time, and (C) this man was her professional colleague. He was senior to her and he was Dr. So-and-So. Ah, but no and no! that Israeli man!

She had no idea she was trying to establish cred with an ethnic Slav of the Slaviest, longest-memoried sort! Too bad I was and am at the same time a naive American, easily taken aback and slow with the snappy comebacks.

You can judge a man pretty accurately by noticing whether he walks into a room talking, versus with a collected, mannerly demeanor. This is scaleable, I found. A little mob of 4 or 5 big men shouting to each other as they burst throught the doors of a little restaurant in Bohemia, scanning the room and commandeering the best table? A bigger mob getting off a bus in Cesky Krumlov, immediately forming up and singing some German song at the castle towers? The opposite sort of behavior is incumbent on them in Czechia, or any place they invaded and did murder not at all long ago.

They call the postwar German generation the “White Generation,” and good relations have been enjoyed between many of their members and the children of the Allies and of the survivors. I suspect, though, that that generation is split down the middle - which can happen, right? - and that a great many of them have absorbed from their forbears certain habits of mind, such as those described by Sebastian Haffner in his memoir describing the taking up and indoctrination of an entire generation of youth in the 1930s.

Thanks, I guess, for reminding me about Madison Grant and his lovely book. When in college I had an idyllic getaway vacation in State of Maine, at the seaside home of the family of a friend. There in the little guest cabin, with the sound of the waves breaking on the shore, the seabirds wheeling overhead, the crystal glints reflecting off the Atlantic waves, spirits of Yankee sailormen all about me, the sea breezes comporting well with the the bowl of blueberries at hand, I stretched out on my little bunk in the cabin and looked up on the bookshelf to find, conveniently to hand for bedtime reading, Madison Grant and Margaret Sanger. Always a shock to find a serpent in the garden.

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All your points about Germany are applicable to Ukraine. Neither war was justified on moral grounds. Neither war was of interest to the American public. IF Germany was at such a disadvantage after WWII, there were other ways to solve those issues, just as there are for Ukraine. One can certainly argue the Germans got what they deserved; nothing about war says there has to be some “EQUITABLE” ending. Poland was trashed and disappeared for some 3-400 years, thanks to the predations of Germany and Russia.

Truth be told, Serbia suffered more from Europe than Germany or any other nation. I won’t bore you with all the facts, but WWI was orchestrated by Austria, and Germany decided to pitch in; had they not, there most likely wouldn’t have BEEN a WWI, because Austria was in no position to carry out the swindle they were trying to do. Austria had zero excuse for the annexation of Bosna/Herzegovina and Dalmaticia - other than to directly harm Serbia. Serbia posed no threat to Austria. It was aggression pure and simple. Coming on the heels of the 1912 Balkan War which finally tossed Turkey off the Balkans once and for good, it was a major blow to a small country.

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There is another parallel between Poland 1939 and the Ukraine 2020 – destructive meddling by representatives of Perfidious Albion.

Going back to one of my favorite sources for information about how those distant pre-WWII days looked to people at that time – “Events Leading Up To World War II: Chronological History, 1931-1944”, US Government Printing Office, House Document No. 541, 1945 – there are frequent references in 1938 to Germany’s concerns about the mistreatment of German people in the city of Danzig on Polish territory, and attempts to negotiate the return of Danzig to German control. (It is noteworthy that Poland was doing exactly the same thing with Czechoslovakia, sending an ultimatum on Sep 30, 1938 demanding the Teschen area be handed over).

All through 1939 there were German attempts to negotiate an agreement on Danzig – but the Polish government refused to negotiate, apparently in part because of assurances that the UK had her back.
March 31: “Prime Minister Chamberlain announced that Britain and France would defend Poland with all the power at their command …”
June 30: “Lord Halifax said the time had come for Britain, France, and Poland to consult to coordinate their plans”.
July 10: “Prime Minister Chamberlain repeated guarantee of help to Poland in threat to her independence she must resist.”
July 14: “Ambassador Henderson reiterated Prime Minister Chamberlains’ guarantee to Poland of July 10.”
August 18: “Ambassador Henderson again emphatically warned Germany not to make the mistake of believing Britain would not assist Poland with arms.”
September 1: Chancellor Hitler’s Proclamation – “The Polish State has refused the peaceful settlement of relations which I desired, and has appealed to arms”.
September 3: “Britain declared state of war existed with Germany”.
That of course triggered the Phony War period, in which Britain and France did nothing constructive to help the Poles who were invaded by both Germany and the USSR.

In the current situation in the Ukraine, there have been multiple reports that UK Prime Minister (for how much longer?) Boris Johnson has encouraged the Kiev authorities not to negotiate with Russia, instead to keep on fighting. And the UK has done little useful to help the Ukrainians in their war.

Karl Marx’s observation that history repeats – first time as tragedy, second time as farce – may be wrong in this case. Both times, the involvement of the London authorities has resulted in tragedy … for other people.

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I think you somewhat answered via timeline:
9/1 Germany invades;
9/3 France and the UK declare war;
9/17 the USSR invades and Poland is doomed.

Had the USSR invaded on 9/1 what would France and the UK have done? Declare war only on Germany, on both, on neither?

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According to the document referenced above, it seems that the USSR was playing a duplicitous game – negotiating treaties simultaneously with both UK/France and Germany.
June 7, 1939: “Prime Minister Chamberlain said new Franco-British-Russian military alliance would include cases were a Government "Might feel that its security was indirectly menaced by the action of another European Power”.

In the event, the USSR went with the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty to support Germany and divide Poland. As to why the USSR’s invasion of Poland did not logically require UK/France to declare war also on the USSR – Good Question!

One answer might be realpolitic – the same force that later caused London to declare war in 1941 on innocent democratic Finland. Another possible explanation is the one offered by President Hoover in his book “Freedom Betrayed” – that London was responding to pressure from FDR to beat down Germany before it became a threat to his beloved communists in the USSR.

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The journalist in the OP video mentions that Ukraine broke the Minsk agreement, but from what I could gather, both parties broke the agreement, so if one side breaks it, the other side automatically have the right to do so, don’t you think?

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It also matters which party broke the agreement first and to what extent. In the bigger picture, Donetsk and Lugansk have made clear their desire to secede from Ukraine and become autonomous republics or to join with Russia. In my opinion, the people have the right to secede and should not be impeded by Ukrainian nationalists who wish to subjugate them.

However this may be, the purpose of the video was to bring attention to the censorship occurring in Germany; the censorship is not exclusive to Germany and is being carried out to various degrees and by different methods by virtually all Western governments. The repression of freedom of expression, which all the governments of the West pretend to hold as an ideal, illustrates the hypocrisy of the so-called “liberal world order”.

Edit: Excuse me, I used a passé phrase. The governments of the West do not even posture to defend freedom anymore. The “liberal world order” has rebranded itself as the “rules-based world order”:

https://twitter.com/GillianMcKeith/status/1544251021362339841

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I have to admit to not paying much attention these days – I totally missed the democratic process by which those “rules” were adopted by everyone from Nunavut to Tierra del Fuego. If anyone has a link to those “rules” for the “rules-based world order”, please share. It would be fun to compare with, say, the Magna Carta or the US Constitution.

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?Why today would you think otherwise. History now shows clearly that Stalin and communists in general have been duplicitous from the gitgo. Nothing new here - just move on.

Sometimes I have the sense that you discuss from the perspective that today’s Russia is somehow fundamentally different from Stalin’s Russia. I would argue that is not true. It is still ruled by an absolute tyrant, has a kleptocracy running things, tries to proclaim more power and position than it really has, and generally plays upon the West’s (or at least American - the Europeans got way more cynical long ago) sense of fair play. I do not think the two republics in Ukraine were naturally disposed to secede from Ukraine but that this all was instigated by Russia to appear legitimate so THEIR boundary aspirations could be justified. Same has been done to Kosovo. Kosovo was never Albanian. Tito, still of questionable Yugoslav origin moved to let in Albanians to counter Serb power (Serbs are THE dominant group in Yugoslavia). When the last Balkan War (there have been so many, one needs to distinguish which one one is talking about) Serbia went to take formal control of Kosovo, WE intervened. Just look at who the “refugees” were - Shiptari of 30 years or less age. And look at what Albania has done to Kosovo since WE instated them in power - driven Serbs out of the region and desecrated huge numbers of old Orthodox monasteries.

Kosovo is to Serbs what Lexington & Concord or Gettysburg is are to Americans. ?Who in his right mind would consider that Canada should control those areas.

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Sadly, that is a good description of the DC Swamp – although the identity of the absolute tyrant is a little obscure.

The human beings in the rest of the world are quite capable of making their own mistakes – they don’t need us to blunder in and make mistakes for them. We need some humility, and we need to start cleaning up the mistakes we have made (and continue to make) at home first. Once we have established that Shining City on a Hill to which most of us aspire, then it will be time to look beyond our own borders and see if we can take genuinely productive steps to help others.

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OR, in brief, we need to mind our OWN business.

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Ovsyannikova

Who is this? I don’t see the connection.