Well in Greece !

Take a look on this photo and keep notes! Michael Kahrimakis(left)  in 2010, sharing a joyful greeting with the ex Minister of "Infrastructures and 

Networks", Dimitris  Reppas(left), for whom his office 

Karhimakis 

was recruited under Georges'

Papandreou government in2011. Reppas was the central role Press Minister 

(25.09.1996 - 24.10.2001)  of Kostas Simitis gov. A  month before Simitis' government

expired, the first bomb for Press Informations' manipulation in Greece leaked to light:  275 active in the media  greek journalists were payed by the National Intelligence Agency's payroll. Until then, Greeks still were convinced by the power of free journalism that was supposed to tell them the truth..

Samaras' spokesman (on the role of the ex-ministers of Press, without naming it) responsible for the  

handcoughs on Press Simos Kedikoglou

now  expelled from the Journalist's Union. 

But so, what ? 

In June, after ERT’s closure, an appeal to immediately reactivate the Greek public broadcaster was issued by the International Federation of Journalists, which represents 180 journalists’ unions globally.

Kedikoglou was especially vitriolic in repeated public statements about what he called a “sinful ERT”, though he had worked at the public broadcaster years before.

Though the government charged that ERT had operated as a hotbed of political patronage – something both socialist Pasok and New Democracy were accused of over the years – critics charged that Kedikoglou himself had engaged in numerous patronage hirings.

News directors over the yearw were hand picked by successive governments, which/ as critics charged routinely intervened in editorial  decisions and the political line of the state-controlled media outlet, though it was nominally autonomous. More, by crashonline

Hey,

 there is a

State Department

Human Rights Report 

for the Press Freedom

in Greece

for 2013-2014!

Greece 2013 Human Rights Report

Press Freedoms, 2013, GreeceIndependent media were active and expressed a wide variety of views. The law permits any prosecutor to order the seizure of publications that insult the president, offend any religion, contain obscenity, advocate for the violent 

overthrow of the political system, or disclose military secrets. 

In April police reportedly threatened to sue two photojournalists for taking photographs of the officers during a demonstration against  censorship outside Athens University. The officers detained the photojournalists and brought them to a police station.

In May unidentified perpetrators threw threatening leaflets outside of the Eleftherotypia newspaper offices, threatening a journalist for her report on scare tactics used by some shop owners to intimidate area residents. The journalist also received telephone calls and e-mails from unknown individuals threatening her against visiting the area again and urging her to end her investigations. 

On June 11, as part of structural reform initiatives in the public sector, the prime minister

 announced the closure of state broadcaster Radio and Television (ERT), suspending nearly 2,700 employees. Some local politicians, journalists, and trade unions, as well as international rights organizations such as AI and the Hellenic League for Human Rights, opposed the sudden closure. ERT staff subsequently took over the station’s headquarters and continued to broadcast, with help from the European Broadcasting Union. The Council of State ruled that ERT’s shutdown 

was within the state’s rights but the government should reestablish public broadcasts in some form as soon as possible. National public television went back  on air on July 10 as Public Television and was scheduled to continue until the new state broadcasting entity New Hellenic Radio Internet Television became operational in 2014., More... 

  "Greece's ERT TV station 

symbolises what is happening to the country", is the Guardian's article, adding that "The closure of the state broadcaster by the coalition government is symptomatic of the brutal austerity being inflicted"....

November 12 Guardian, more     

Finally, the "shock and awe" created by the sudden shutdown of ERT serves as a tremendous distraction from the latest embarrassing failures of the government, including the   recent failure to sell Greece's natural gas utility, DEPA, to Gazprom, and the potential collapse of the sale of the national lottery, OPAP, to Greek and foreign investors.  These failures came just a few days after Samaras proclaimed that Greece had turned the corner and become a "success story."  A successful attempt to shut down ERT, however, would provide a precedent and also the political momentum that would allow the Greek government to swiftly proceed forward with the planned privatizations of vital Greek utilities, including the water and electric utilities, airports, harbors, and other valuable assets. more

• When Propaganda and (new) Democracy undoubtedly merge...Go to our News story