Greece

(GHM/IFEX) -GHM was informed on 1 June 2001 by Sotiris Bletsas that the First Appeals Court of Athens will hear his case on 3 July. Bletsas, a member of the Society for Aromanian (Vlach) Culture, was sentenced on 2 February to fifteen months in prison and fined 500,000 drs. (approx. US$1,400) for dissemination of false […]

(GHM/IFEX) – The Prefect of Salonica Costas Papadopoulos was reported today to have refused a license for the use of the state-owned Lazarists’ Monastery in Salonica for a public concert to be held there on 16 September 2000. The concert was organised by the NGOs Citizens’ Movement and European Expression in solidarity with the Yugoslav […]

(GHM/IFEX) – GHM strongly condemns the recurrent practice of refusing entry to Greece to Macedonian and Turkish activists and journalists labelled as “undesirable”. The latest case concerns Slavko Mangovski, editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine “Makedonsko Sonce” published in Skopje. He is also known for his defence of the rights of Macedonian minorities in the Balkans. […]

(GHM/IFEX) – GHM has been informed that, on 30 May 2000, writer Vasko Karadza, ca itizen and resident of Skopje, Macedonia, was denied entrance into Greece at the Greek-Macedonian border because he was “registered in an inadmissible list” (sic). This occurred even though he held a legal visa issued by the Greek Consulate in Skopje […]

(GHM/IFEX) – On 15 July 2000, at around 1:00 p.m. (local time), three journalists were temporarily arrested by four Greek police officers, on the road between Xanthi and Echinos (in Greek Thrace). The arrested included reporters Beyza Guducu and Didem Ozbahceci, and cameraman Alihan Sonmez, from TGRT-TV. They were accompanied by Ayca Guducu, Guducu’s sister, […]

(GHM/IFEX) – On 9 June 2000, journalist Panos Lambrou of the weekly “Epochi” was verbally and physically harassed by a mob led by municipal council members in Nea Kios (Argolida, Peloponese), while police stood by. Lambrou was participating in a visit by forty members of an antiracist group, members of parties and other organisations, who […]

**Updates IFEX alert of 7 March 2000** (GHM/IFEX) – On 9 March 2000, Salonica judge Maria Robbi banned a best-selling book that was condemned by the Greek Orthodox Church because of passages about the possible sexual longings of Jesus Christ. She justified the ban as a means to prevent ”outbreaks of violence” after religious zealots […]

(GHM/IFEX) – On 7 March 2000, composer Manolis Rasoulis was given a twelve-month prison sentence (that can be “bought off” for 1,500 drs, or US$4.50 per day) for defamatory statements he made in an interview to the daily “Exousia” on 14 April 1998. Rasoulis was convicted by the three-member First Instance (Misdemeanor) Court in Athens […]

(GHM/IFEX) – On 3 March 2000, novelist Mimis Androulakis and his publisher Thanasis Kastaniotis were indicted for blasphemy by a Salonica prosecutor for breach of Article 199 of the Penal Code, for allegedly committing blasphemy against a religion and its founder. In Androulakis’ new book “M to the Nth Power”, he reportedly presents Jesus Christ […]

(GHM/IFEX) – On 3 March 2000, world-renowned violinist Leonidas Kavakos was given a four-month suspended prison sentence for defamatory statements he made in an interview. Kavakos was convicted by the three-member First Instance Court in Salonica, and for defamation of three members of the artistic board of the Salonica State Orchestra. He was ordered to […]

(GHM/IFEX) – The following is an excerpt on freedom of expression and media from a 7 January 2000 joint GHM and Minority Rights Group-Greece annual report on human rights in Greece: GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (GHM) MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP-GREECE (MRG-G) P.O. Box 60820 GR-15304 Glyka Nera Greece Tel. +30-1-347.22.59 Fax +30-1-601.87.60 e-mail: [email protected] web page: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr […]

(GHM/IFEX) – An evangelical radio station in Athens was forcibly closed and a retired pastor jailed, according to a 3 December 1999 press release from the Fellowship of Free Evangelical Churches in Greece and reported on 14 December by the organisation Human Rights Without Frontiers. On 2 December, twelve police officers raided the administrative offices […]

(GHM/IFEX) – A journalist was sentenced to jail in Greece on 21 May 1999. On 21 May 1999, journalist Dimitris Rizos, editor and publisher of the daily “Adesmeftos Typos”, was convicted by a three-member Appeals Court of Athens to twelve months in prison for the repeated aggravated defamation of four members of the board of […]

(GHM/IFEX) – A journalist was sentenced to jail in Greece on 19 May 1999. On 19 May, journalist Charalambos Triantafyllidis, editor and publisher of the weekly “Enimerosi” (in Florina, NW Greece), was convicted by the three-member Appeals Court in Kozani, and given a five-month suspended prison sentence for insulting Florina’s then prefect-elect Pavlos Altanis, on […]

(GHM/IFEX) – A journalist has been sentenced to jail in Greece. On 18 May 1999, journalist Dimitris Rizos, editor and publisher of the daily “Adesmeftos Typos”, was convicted and given a five-month suspended sentence for insulting George Papazoglou, a former cadre of the newspaper. The incriminating text did in fact include insulting characterisations of Papazoglou. […]

(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 […]