Greece

Hate crime reform in Greece should focus on tackling racist and xenophobic violence, not criminalizing speech or ideas, Human Rights Watch says. Justice Minister Haralambos Athanassiou announced on October 3, 2013, that he would introduce an anti-racism bill in Parliament in the coming days.

According to IFJ/EFJ affiliate, the Journalists Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers (JUADN), Greek journalists covering the Golden Dawn murder case have been threatened and attacked by MPs and members of the far-right Greek party.

Thousands of protesters gathered on 18 September in Athens near the place where Pavlos Fyssas was murdered by a Golden Dawn supporter.

Taking their cue from the neo-nazi Golden Dawn, Greece’s far-right newspapers have recently been targeting alternative opinions. While hardly breaking news, the language and symbolism of the campaign is of vital importance because it represents just the tip of the iceberg, Christos Syllas writes.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras announced that the state TV channel, ERT, would be shut down from midnight on 11 June. ERT journalists responded by occupying their buildings, and continuing to transmit wherever possible.

George Tselikas was assaulted on 14 April 2013 by a group of unknown assailants outside a football stadium in Athens. This is the third attack on a sports journalist in Greece this year.

Police brutality, censorship and deportation are among the issues faced by journalists and activists in crisis-stricken Greece, where a climate of terror prevails.

Small homemade bombs exploded in front of the homes of five Greek journalists in Athens on 11 January. The anarchist group, Lovers of Lawlessness, said the attacks were made to protest coverage of the country’s financial crisis seen as sympathetic to the government.

The Athens public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into whether the performance of Terrence McNally’s play Corpus Christi violated Greece’s 1951 blasphemy law. The play depicts Jesus Christ and his apostles as gay.

In a joint statement, IFEX members in the European Union and its ‘neighbourhood’ states call upon authorities to protect freedom of expression in Greece.

Journalists Marilena Katsimi and Kostas Arvanitis were dismissed from their positions at the state broadcaster ETR after discussing the reaction of the Public Order Minister to police torture allegations.

Well-known investigative reporter Kostas Vaxevanis is facing trial over breach of privacy laws after he published a list of names of prominent Greek politicians and business leaders holding Swiss bank accounts.

http://www.freemedia.at/home/singleview/article/seemo-observes-increase-in-attacks-against-media-in-greece.html

SEEMO & IPI Call for Greek Authorities to Investigate Journalist’s Beating Jerusalem Post Journalist Attacked in Athens VIENNA, June 8, 2012 – The South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), today condemned the violent attack on Jerusalem Post journalist Gil Shefler that took place on June 6, and […]

“They had me on the ground and were beating me. . . I can say with absolute certainty that they knew I was a journalist,” said Konstantinos Bogdanos, who sustained a head injury and broken hand in the attack.

*REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS / REPORTERS SANS FRONTIÈRES Press release / Communiqué de presse 10.05.2012* *English*: http://en.rsf.org/greece-torrent-of-abuse-and-threats-10-05-2012,42603.html *Français*: http://fr.rsf.org/grece-les-neo-nazis-se-repandent-en-10-05-2012,42602.html *GREECE: Torrent of abuse and threats against journalists from neo-Nazis* Reporters Without Borders is deeply disturbed by the threats that Greece’s neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi), has repeatedly made against the media. The party has just […]