https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/the-effort-to-suppress-criticism
Now Austria is joining in...
Ricky Hale
and Council Estate Media
Feb 10, 2025

While Trump is doing everything he can to alienate US allies, and Europe is unsure it will remain a collection of vassal states, and the world seems more fractured than ever, one thing remains constant: the West is protecting the military industrial complex at all costs. This might seem contradictory, but in this time of instability, now more than ever, dissent cannot be tolerated. If dissent is allowed to flourish, Western hegemony could come to an end.

Western nations are stamping out dissent in a way that can only be coordinated, given they are going further than they have in a long time. Historically, the West had been careful to give the impression it values free speech, but that went out of the window with Julian Assange, and now, everywhere you look, dissent is being crushed.

One of the biggest targets of the crackdown on dissent is journalist and Assange supporter Richard Medhurst who is not only being targeted by British counter-terrorism police but Austrian police too. Medhurst was recently invited to an interview at his home by Austrian authorities. There they informed him they were considering revoking his residency, due to his reporting on Palestine and Lebanon.

Increasingly, loyalty to Israel is a requirement to reside in a western country and criticism of Israel can have you thrown out. In Germany, you are expected to affirm Israel’s “right to exist” if you wish to become a citizen. In the US, your student visa will be revoked if you protest against Israel. And in Austria, it seems you can be expelled for practising journalism critical of Israel.

During Medhurst’s interview, Austrian intelligence agents entered the room with an arrest warrant and announced they were detaining him. Medhurst’s home and studio were ransacked in front of his eyes and his equipment was disassembled, including equipment that he did not own. Medhurst points out the warrant was for his electronic devices only, but officers helped themselves to any possessions they wanted, including books and documents. The list of items that were seized was 19 pages long.

Medhurst’s equipment was confiscated not long after he’d replaced the equipment that was confiscated by British counter-terrorism police. In other words, Medhurst is back to square one. It really looks like someone wants to stop him doing journalism anywhere in the world, doesn’t it?

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Medhurst was detained for six or seven hours and told his detention was not related to his arrest in the UK. However, he does not believe this, given the parallels between the two cases. He feels that British police put the Austrians up to it.

It could be the British were unable to find anything incriminating so they hoped the Austrians might have better luck. It could be they are trying to find anything they can to prosecute and silence him. Austrian interviewers admitted that if they can’t access Medhurst’s devices, they could send them to other countries, indicating this is an international effort to crush dissent.

Medhurst says he was accused by Austrian interrogators of being a member of Hamas and threatened with ten years in prison (he has also been threatened with 14 years in a UK prison).
Consider Medhurst is an English Christian and is accused of wanting to establish a “worldwide Islamic caliphate”

Perhaps, in his role as a journalist, Medhurst has at some point spoken to someone authorities suspect is a member of Hamas, and the fact he is critical of Israel means he can only be doing the bidding of Hamas. You see how stupid this sounds? Literally nobody thinks Medhurst is involved in terrorism.

Back in August 2024, Medhurst was arrested at Heathrow airport and the investigation into his terrorism (journalism) is still ongoing. Given the authorities have had his devices for months, if there was any credible evidence that he was involved in terrorism, he would not be free to travel abroad, he would be behind bars.

This thing is not even about Medhurst, it’s a warning that anyone who reports the atrocities committed by Israel and the military industrial complex is not safe in the West. This partly explains why the British press never bothered to report on Medhurst’s arrest, however, the Austrian press has not yet got the message.

The treatment of Medhurst and other journalists has recently been condemned by the United Nations, but the West is not pretending to respect human rights and international law as much as it used to. Those things are just too much of an effort.

Here is an excerpt from a letter signed by four UN special rapporteurs:
While myself and others have pointed out that our basic rights are being eroded to protect Israel while it commits genocide, that is a simplification. The reality is this is about protecting the military industrial complex from criticism, keeping the public in the dark about the crimes of the empire. Israel is a core component of the empire because we would struggle to control the Middle East without it. I’m afraid your right to free speech is much less important than the empire’s desire to control the oil trade. If you dislike that, good luck trying to speak up about it…