(GHM/IFEX) – GHM is welcoming the decision of the Appeals Court of the Aegean which, in Chios, on 21 January 1999, acquitted Yannis Tzoumas, journalist and publisher of “Alithia”, a daily on the island of Chios, of defamation charges. Tzoumas had been convicted on 3 September 1998 by a First Instance Court in Chios, to […]
(GHM/IFEX) – GHM is welcoming the decision of the Appeals Court of the
Aegean which, in Chios, on 21 January 1999, acquitted Yannis Tzoumas,
journalist and publisher of “Alithia”, a daily on the island of Chios, of
defamation charges. Tzoumas had been convicted on 3 September 1998 by a
First Instance Court in Chios, to four months’ imprisonment for defamation.
He was then set free pending appeal.
**Updates IFEX alert of 18 September 1998**
He had been charged for an August 1997 incident in which he was accused of
defaming Minister Stavros Soumakis. Initially, he was charged with
aggravated defamation for having claimed the Minister, visiting Chios, was
staying at the house of a ship owner who was under investigation; the
journalist also claimed the Minister had managed to get tickets for himself
and his wife on the eve of a 16 August 1997 Olympic Airways flight – a
flight which is always booked three months in advance. The paper called him
“Minister of the ship owners … who sunbathes at the villas of the ship
owners.”
During the first trial, the facts were confirmed as accurate, but the court
considered that the “harsh style” of the article consisted an act of
defamation. The Appeals Court confirmed the veracity of the facts and
moreover stated that there was no intent to defame the Minister but only to
criticise his behaviour, albeit in harsh style.
GHM would like to thank all international non-governmental organisations
which included this case in their appeals to Greek authorities in favour of
freedom of expression and condemning the previous conviction. The
organisation hopes that the remaining similar cases will be treated in a
similar fashion.
