(GHM/IFEX) – The following is a 3 April 1999 GHM press release: TOPIC: GREEK STATE NEWS AGENCY DISTORTS IFJ STATEMENT ON B92. UNSCRUPULOUS JOURNALISM REIGNS SUPREME IN GREECE. The cooperating NGOs Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group – Greece would like to denounce the unscrupulous distortion on 3 April by the Greek state Macedonian […]
(GHM/IFEX) – The following is a 3 April 1999 GHM press release:
TOPIC: GREEK STATE NEWS AGENCY DISTORTS IFJ STATEMENT ON B92.
UNSCRUPULOUS
JOURNALISM REIGNS SUPREME IN GREECE.
The cooperating NGOs Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group
–
Greece would like to denounce the unscrupulous distortion on 3 April
by the
Greek state Macedonian Press Agency of the International Federation of
Journalists’ (IFJ) statement of 2 April on the B92 closure by the Serb
authorities.
The Greek state news agency mentioned nothing about the main arguments
in
the IFJ’s statement related to B92. Moreover, the reference to the
credibility of military information was selectively distorted while no
reference was made to the IFJ’s denunciation of the information
blackout in
Kosovo and the crackdown on media in Serbia.
We call on the IFJ, whose members include the Greek journalists’
unions, to
react to that distortion and to more largely look into the (lack of)
journalistic standards in Greece.
We call on other concerned NGOs to strongly protest the behavior of
the MPA
specifically and the Greek media in general.
Send letters to:
Mr. Spyros Kouzinopoulos
Director of MPA
Fax: +30-31-244105
e-mail: mpa@philippos.mpa.gr
Mr. Nikos Kiaos
President of Athens Union of Journalists (ESIEA)
Fax: +30-1-3632608
Background Information
This is unfortunately only a relatively minor case of the extensive
unscrupulous journalism that has characterized Greek media in recent
weeks.
To quote veteran columnist Richardos Someritis [protest letter to the
Athens
Journalists Union (ESIEA), 31 March 1999] “many Greek journalists
(…)
behave like soldiers in the front: they have chosen their camp, their
uniform, their flag (…) all journalists with a point of view
different
than the dominant one or who dared offer the information that others
refused
are being threatened or humiliated.”
Follow some more serious examples of unscrupulous journalism and a
reference
to a comprehensive article.
First from the largest selling dailies “Ta Nea” and “Eleftherotypia”.
Hitler
is portrayed as rising from the tomb to lead NATO tanks in Yugoslavia,
even
before the strikes had actually started (“Ta Nea” 24-3-1999) while, in
following days, NATO planes are repeatedly drawn with swastikas on
their
wings, in the same newspaper. Front page titles read “Slaughter of the
Lamb”
[the lamb are the Serbs] (“Eleftherotypia” 31-3-1999) and “1941
Hitler, 1999
Clinton: Bomb Belgrade” (“Eleftherotypia” 1-4-1999).
Three right wing (the two “Adesmeftos Typos” and “Vradyni”) and one
left
wing (“Athinaiki”) tabloids wrote wholly undocumented stories on 2
April,
that even official Belgrade sources had not mentioned. Specifically,
that in
Serbia another NATO plane was downed along with two helicopters
carrying 50
commandos. And that many NATO airmen and officers were arrested by
Serb
partisans, while 7 or 19 alleged bodies of American soldiers were
secretly
brought in containers to the Salonica military hospital. “Vradyni”
regularly
refers to “Adolph Clinton.”
For a critical presentation of the press coverage in the first two
days (24
and 25 March), as well as the selective censorship by state media of
C.
Simitis’ and G. Papandreou’s declarations, see:
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/english/articles/AIM25-3-99.html
