{"id":1491,"date":"2021-11-11T10:55:24","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T09:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=1491"},"modified":"2024-06-20T21:27:12","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T20:27:12","slug":"the-festival-of-freedom-is-anti-vaccine-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2021\/11\/11\/the-festival-of-freedom-is-anti-vaccine-propaganda\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Festival of freedom\u201d is anti-vaccine propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Original article<\/a> (in Croatian) was published on 21\/09\/2021<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of the \u201cFestival of freedom\u201d is to promote lies about vaccines, which anti-vaxxers try to make credible by referring to unfounded conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s \u201cFestival of freedom 2.0\u201d lasted four hours, hosted 16 speakers and gathered several thousand people at Zagreb\u2019s Ban Jelacic Square (as many as 20 thousand according to one of the speakers, and about three thousand according to media reports). Again, the protest received support from the right-wing politics, the representatives of the Homeland Movement and Most, and the host of the show \u201cBujica\u201d Velimir Bujanac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same as the last year, when the \u201cFestival of freedom\u201d was held for the first time, a number of factually inaccurate and unfounded allegations were made at the protest. These are mostly related to popular misinformation circulating on social media; for example, claims from the viral anti-vaccine video \u201cPlandemia\u201d were mentioned, discredited scientists and proven disinformation disseminators such as Michael Yeadon or Sucharit Bhakdi, as well as the alleged \u201cpandemic marketing\u201d, which Nenad Bakic and Gordan Lauc frequently mention in their posts (who nevertheless needed to distance themselves publicly from the \u201cFestival of Freedom\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will not look at all the inaccuracies presented at the \u201cFestival of freedom\u201d, because there were simply too many of them. Instead, we will concentrate on the key messages, i.e., the things that were repeated in the speeches of almost all speakers: that the vaccine against Covid-19 is harmful, that the pandemic is used as an excuse to implement the secret globalist agenda to control the world population and that different opinions are censored and lastly that they are systematically denied access to public space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vaccine<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There is no doubt that the \u201cFestival of freedom\u201d, as we wrote earlier, is primarily an anti-vaccination protest. Almost all speakers made inaccurate claims about the Covid-19 vaccine, mostly repeating misinformation circulating on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vilim Karlovic said that the vaccine was \u201cgenocidal and flagitious\u201d, that it \u201ccauses sterilization\u201d and that it was \u201cbased on murdered children\u201d. Stipe Kutlesa claims that it is \u201cmore dangerous than the disease itself\u201d. Nada Jurincic claims it can \u201ccause illness and death\u201d. Josipa Juricev Sudac thinks it can \u201ccause depopulation\u201d. Anita Supa claims that the vaccine is \u201cuntested and experimental\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of the above claims have a factual basis. Covid-19 vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in practice: they provide quality protection against disease, and side effects are rare and mostly mild. Nearly six billion doses of vaccine have been distributed worldwide so far, and in the world\u2019s most vaccinated countries, the Covid-19 pandemic has virtually stopped burdening national health systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed nearly five million, mostly unvaccinated, people worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agenda<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When they have to explain why someone would offer them a potentially dangerous vaccine or why governments around the world would unnecessarily introduce epidemiological measures that could have devastating economic effects, opponents of vaccination prefer to argue that it is a hidden agenda of a not-quite-defined globalist elite who wants to deprive people of their freedoms and introduce totalitarianism. Such views were also expressed by speakers at the \u201cFestival of freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stipe Kutlesa thus claimed that they were \u201cfighting against the new world order introduced by state and church structures and the media\u201d. Mario Knezovic also spoke about the \u201cnew world order\u201d. Nada Jurincic believes that the Covid-19 pandemic is \u201ca deception carried out by the political-medical mafia behind which the Bilderberg group and the hidden pyramid of evil stand\u201d. Andrija Klaric concluded that \u201cthe virus of dictatorship is spreading across Croatia and the world\u201d. Predrag Livak said that \u201cmeasures to combat the epidemic and compulsory vaccination are a fascist agenda to enslave the population\u201d. Ivan Lovrinovic called the Covid-19 pandemic a \u201cproject\u201d that the elites from the shadows use to prepare us for a \u201cnever-before-seen financial crisis\u201d. Mate Knezovic concluded that a \u201ccoup d\u2019etat\u201d had actually been carried out in Croatia. Filip Slipcevic called the pandemic a \u201cpoliticized fraud\u201d. Anita Supe claimed that the disease was used to impose \u201crepressive political control measures\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, too, it is evident that the speakers were inspired by various conspiracy theories circulating on social networks, which Faktograf regularly exposes as factually incorrect (1, 2). Apart from not having a foothold in reality, these claims are also illogical. Speakers at the Festival of freedom, for example, often mention the introduction of totalitarianism, although democratic elections took place normally in Croatia and other countries during the epidemic. At the same time, measures to combat the epidemic are compared to fascism, although there is a valid basis for their introduction coming not only from expert opinions, but also from the Law on the protection of the population from infectious diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Censorship<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The claim about the alleged conspiracy against humanity is reinforced by the speakers from the \u201cFestival of freedom\u201d with assertions about the alleged censorship of undesirable opinions in public space. They believe that there is a conspiracy in the media and the scientific community to hide the real truth from the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his speech, Ivan Lovrinovic claimed that \u201ceverything is censored and blocked\u201d, that \u201cthere is no breach of the second opinion in the public\u201d and that \u201cthe biggest problem is spreading the propaganda\u201d. Fra Mario Knezovic added that in many media, \u201cpropaganda, censorship and blocking of different opinion have been put to use,  and he asked himself the following: \u201cwhy we will not see the speakers from this gathering in the mainstream media?\u201d Lidija Gajski also spoke about \u201cpropaganda and censorship of opinion\u201d. Filip Slipcevic said that \u201cthey have harnessed everything from the media to sold science and everyone who is interested in keeping this false pandemic alive\u201d. Anita Supe concluded that \u201cthere is no room for public debate and confrontation of different opinions, which is the main feature of the dictatorship\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But first of all, it should be mentioned that it is not true that anti-vaccine propagandists and others involved in the \u201cFestival of freedom\u201d do not have access to the media. In addition to expressing their opinions in front of thousands of followers on social networks, they are regular guests of numerous peripheral websites and similar media that do not shy away from presenting factual inaccuracies in public space (such as the show \u201cTorrent\u201d on Z1 television). Sometimes they even manage to break through to the media mainstream, as was the case with Alma Demirovic, who was hosted by RTL Direkt shorty before the \u201cFestival of freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it should be pointed out that the speakers from the \u201cFestival of freedom\u201d either manipulate the meaning of the term \u201ccensorship\u201d, or do not understand it at all. According to the Croatian language website, censorship is \u201cpartial shortening or complete banning of books, music and works of art, texts in newspapers and other media, usually for security, moral, religious or political-ideological reasons\u201d. They were obviously not forbidden to express their own opinion, given that they spoke to the public from a stage equipped with a sound system on the central square of Zagreb, which was reported by the leading media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, they still consider themselves \u201ccensored\u201d because the mainstream media generally refuses to take their claims seriously and convey them uncritically. This is also shown by the lack of understanding of journalistic work. According to the law, the media are obliged to publish factually accurate and substantiated information. If they publish claims that they know are incorrect, they are subject to criminal prosecution. In other words, when journalists refuse to convey factually inaccurate and scientifically unfounded claims in their media, it is not called censorship but professionalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This text was created with the support of the Fund for the promotion of pluralism and diversity of electronic media<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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