Bilderberg-Conference 2013 in the UK: Another Insult to Democracy and Press-Freedom
Dr. Alexander von Paleske --- 29.5. 2013 ----
Next week yet another Bilderberg-Conference is taking place, this time in Watford U.K., 30 km north west of London.
The location is the five star Hotel “The Grove”, nice and expensive, situated a bit outside of Watford with a golf course surrounding it, ideal to shield the conference from the public
The Grove Hotel
The nearby rugby ground has already been rented for the accommodation of a large police contingent during the conference, which lasts from the 6th to 9th June.
Attendance is by invitation only. The invited guests are top politicians, nobles, top business people and top Generals of the Armed Forces.
Last years participants included the (regular) Henry Kissinger, US-Secretary of State, John Kerry, former German Deutsche Bank Boss Josef Ackermann, AXA-CEO Henri de Castries, Airbus-EADS Boss Thomas Enders, ex Siemens, now Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, and German Green Party supremo Juergen Trittin.
Media barred
The Media are not not allowed to attend, no press conference after the meeting neither, and the participants are obliged to keep quite about what has been discussed at the conference, what decisions have been made (if any), or what has been they agreed on.
A look back
The Bilderberg conferences were founded in 1954 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, grandfather of the present King Willem, and named after a country hotel in the Netherlands de Bilderberg, then owned by Prince Bernhard, where the first conference took place.
Press and public were barred from the conference straight away from the beginning.
Prince Bernhard, a former follower of Adolf Hitler, who became member of the SS, however managed in time to jump off the brown bandwagon, was the Bilderberg Conference Chairperson from 1954-1976. He then had to resign, because it became public, that he was corrupt to the core by promoting the sale of Lockheed aircrafts to the Dutch army in exchange for money.
The conferences now attract not only the invited guests, but also quite a number of uninvited protesters from several countries, because this conference is an insult to press freedom and democracy.
Private or public?
The conference organizers claim, that Bilderberg meetings are private, therefore there is no need for information to the public, neither directly nor via the press.
However, this is total nonsense. The meetings are privately organized, certainly, but the funding of some of the participants by taxpayers of their home countries, and the costly provision of a larger police force at the expense of taxpayers of the host country, makes this conference a privately organized but public event.
Moreover, these meetings are regular annual gatherings, and therefore fall into the same category as the privately organized World Economic Forum in Davos, which of course is covered extensively by the media.
The presence of top decisions makers, who certainly do not attend for the sole purpose to have a cup of coffee together, makes it necessary for the public, to know – and the public in a democracy has the right to know – via the media.
Access to information and Press Freedom
The battle for access to information is - and has always been - part of the fight for press freedom. Many democratically elected parliamentarians and parliaments have voted for "access to information" rights. This principle applies not only to state institutions, but also to gatherings of public interest, may they be state organized or privately organized.
This does certainly not apply to true private meetings: if, let me say, Kissinger invites a few public figures to his house.
However, an institutionalized gathering (meeting, conference) of a larger number of public figures, that is taking place on a regular basis, where a lot of the attendees participate at the expense of taxpayers money, can certainly not be called a “private meeting” at all.
Thus, to call the Bilderberg conference with it’s 100 + attendees a private meeting means basically to fool the public by using a cheap and misleading excuse for not letting the press in.
No democrat should therefore attend these meetings, as long as the precondition for participation is to keep quite about it.
Memories of yesteryear
Secret trials, secret political gatherings, censorship and denial of access to information were all part and parcel of times long by gone by in the UK.
Openness, press freedom, public trials, access to information are all essential parts of any democracy.
It is regrettable, that even politicians, who should uphold the principles of democracy and press freedom violate these principles by adhering to the rules of the conference and accepting the conditions imposed on them.
Furthermore, the conference gives rise to all sorts of conspiracy theories.
The Bilderberg conferences have to come out of the shroud of secrecy, or should be boycotted by democrats, and no public funds should be made available for these undemocratic events of yesteryear.
Addendum
The List of Bilderberg 2013 participants is out, see here:
http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/participants2013.html
Bilderberg-Conferences – An Insult to Democracy and Press Freedom
Bilderberg 2013: Fortsetzung der demokratieverhöhnenden Veranstaltungsreihe - diesmal nahe London
Die Bilderberg Konferenz 2012 tagt - oder: Alles verkommen
Alle Jahre wieder die Bilderberg- Konferenz - oder: Verhöhnung von Demokratie und Öffentlichkeit
Next week yet another Bilderberg-Conference is taking place, this time in Watford U.K., 30 km north west of London.
The location is the five star Hotel “The Grove”, nice and expensive, situated a bit outside of Watford with a golf course surrounding it, ideal to shield the conference from the public
The Grove Hotel
The nearby rugby ground has already been rented for the accommodation of a large police contingent during the conference, which lasts from the 6th to 9th June.
Attendance is by invitation only. The invited guests are top politicians, nobles, top business people and top Generals of the Armed Forces.
Last years participants included the (regular) Henry Kissinger, US-Secretary of State, John Kerry, former German Deutsche Bank Boss Josef Ackermann, AXA-CEO Henri de Castries, Airbus-EADS Boss Thomas Enders, ex Siemens, now Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, and German Green Party supremo Juergen Trittin.
Media barred
The Media are not not allowed to attend, no press conference after the meeting neither, and the participants are obliged to keep quite about what has been discussed at the conference, what decisions have been made (if any), or what has been they agreed on.
A look back
The Bilderberg conferences were founded in 1954 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, grandfather of the present King Willem, and named after a country hotel in the Netherlands de Bilderberg, then owned by Prince Bernhard, where the first conference took place.
Press and public were barred from the conference straight away from the beginning.
Prince Bernhard, a former follower of Adolf Hitler, who became member of the SS, however managed in time to jump off the brown bandwagon, was the Bilderberg Conference Chairperson from 1954-1976. He then had to resign, because it became public, that he was corrupt to the core by promoting the sale of Lockheed aircrafts to the Dutch army in exchange for money.
The conferences now attract not only the invited guests, but also quite a number of uninvited protesters from several countries, because this conference is an insult to press freedom and democracy.
Private or public?
The conference organizers claim, that Bilderberg meetings are private, therefore there is no need for information to the public, neither directly nor via the press.
However, this is total nonsense. The meetings are privately organized, certainly, but the funding of some of the participants by taxpayers of their home countries, and the costly provision of a larger police force at the expense of taxpayers of the host country, makes this conference a privately organized but public event.
Moreover, these meetings are regular annual gatherings, and therefore fall into the same category as the privately organized World Economic Forum in Davos, which of course is covered extensively by the media.
The presence of top decisions makers, who certainly do not attend for the sole purpose to have a cup of coffee together, makes it necessary for the public, to know – and the public in a democracy has the right to know – via the media.
Access to information and Press Freedom
The battle for access to information is - and has always been - part of the fight for press freedom. Many democratically elected parliamentarians and parliaments have voted for "access to information" rights. This principle applies not only to state institutions, but also to gatherings of public interest, may they be state organized or privately organized.
This does certainly not apply to true private meetings: if, let me say, Kissinger invites a few public figures to his house.
However, an institutionalized gathering (meeting, conference) of a larger number of public figures, that is taking place on a regular basis, where a lot of the attendees participate at the expense of taxpayers money, can certainly not be called a “private meeting” at all.
Thus, to call the Bilderberg conference with it’s 100 + attendees a private meeting means basically to fool the public by using a cheap and misleading excuse for not letting the press in.
No democrat should therefore attend these meetings, as long as the precondition for participation is to keep quite about it.
Memories of yesteryear
Secret trials, secret political gatherings, censorship and denial of access to information were all part and parcel of times long by gone by in the UK.
Openness, press freedom, public trials, access to information are all essential parts of any democracy.
It is regrettable, that even politicians, who should uphold the principles of democracy and press freedom violate these principles by adhering to the rules of the conference and accepting the conditions imposed on them.
Furthermore, the conference gives rise to all sorts of conspiracy theories.
The Bilderberg conferences have to come out of the shroud of secrecy, or should be boycotted by democrats, and no public funds should be made available for these undemocratic events of yesteryear.
Addendum
The List of Bilderberg 2013 participants is out, see here:
http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/participants2013.html
Bilderberg-Conferences – An Insult to Democracy and Press FreedomBilderberg 2013: Fortsetzung der demokratieverhöhnenden Veranstaltungsreihe - diesmal nahe LondonDie Bilderberg Konferenz 2012 tagt - oder: Alles verkommen Alle Jahre wieder die Bilderberg- Konferenz - oder: Verhöhnung von Demokratie und Öffentlichkeitonlinedienst - 29. Mai, 12:49 Article 6670x read
