[flagged]
https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Post-Office-Horizon-s...
“The Post Office was determined to keep a lid on the Horizon problems. To do this, it instructed staff in its call centre, which was the first contact point for subpostmasters having problems, to tell callers they were the only ones experiencing problems.
It went further than this by using its legal teams and deep pockets to defend itself against accusations, in court if necessary. It bragged about stopping subpostmasters from “jumping on the Horizon bashing bandwagon” when it silenced them. It also lied to journalists, politicians and anybody else who questioned the robustness of the Horizon system.”
Russia where I'm from is a great example of that because I witnessed it and I personally know some journalists currently rotting in jail.
Found in the fortune database, I have my doubts about it's universal validity, But I am a sucker for a good quote.
For free, another quote I found while looking for this one.
"The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper" -- -- Thomas Jefferson
The last quote is between wrong to idiotic on many levels. Ads are a compromise needed for free media to exist and journalists to eat and are the least trustworthy part.
Until the mass-internet made this possible, governments actually got away with it pretty much all the time. In some cases we got to know decades later, as documents were declassified or people confessed on their deathbeds. In most cases, we likely never got the truth. That's really not possible now, as long the internet stays up.
(Also, big shout out to FOIA laws. With all their limitations and imperfections, they were a massive step forward towards transparency in government. They would arguably have become a historical necessity at some point, but the anglosphere - Clinton, Blair - was definitely at the forefront of that shift.)
Pink Floyd
Don't be told what you want
Don't be told what you need
Please tell me you know they all will say whatever public want to hear to make record companies money and profit from concerts ?
TLDR: GCHQ spend 500million on a satellite, and decide that not only is it too secret for the BBC to talk about it's too secret for Parliament to know about. Huge row ensues.
Matrix-Churchill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Report a number of people are given permission by the MOD to supply weapons to Iraq. These are stopped by UK customs. In the subsequent prosecution, those involved attempt to raise the permission they were given .. but the government signs a number of Public Interest Immunity Certificates, making it illegal to mention that, including at their own criminal trial in their defense.
Important information is still redacted by the D-Notice system. The MOD have free reign to lie about things and have people prosecuted for revealing the truth. There are a few incidents where Americans and Brits on social media have radically different views on what happened because of what is and is not legal to report.
There is a very long history of critical information on weapons systems and capabilities being kept secret.
(Despite that, their Ukraine war briefings to the public are pretty reliable)
<<The Matrix-Churchill trial collapsed when former minister Alan Clark admitted he had been "economical with the actualité">>
Wikipedia:
When Clark was Minister for Trade, responsible for overseeing arms sales to foreign governments, he was interviewed by journalist John Pilger who asked him:[31]
JP "Did it bother you personally that this British equipment was causing such mayhem and human suffering (by supplying arms for Indonesia's war in East Timor)?"
AC "No, not in the slightest, it never entered my head. You tell me that this was happening, I didn't hear about it or know about it."
JP "Well, even if I hadn't told you it was happening, the fact that we supply highly effective equipment to a regime like that is not a consideration, as far as you're concerned. It's not a personal consideration. I ask the question because I read you are a vegetarian and you are quite seriously concerned about the way animals are killed."
AC "Yeah."
JP "Doesn't that concern extend to the way humans, albeit foreigners, are killed?"
AC "Curiously not. No."
While involved in the Matrix Churchill trial he was cited in a divorce case in South Africa, in which it was revealed he had had affairs with Valerie Harkess, the wife of a South African barrister, and her daughters, Josephine and Alison.