Milosevic's Many Persistent Loyal Friends in Greece
AIM Athens, May 18, 2000
"The country has entered an open dictatorship. It is not an incident, or accident. This is a political decision to transform the country into Enver Hohxa's Albania in order to prolong the regime's life in total isolation and by violence," Social Democratic Union President Zarko Korac told Beta News Agency (17 May). "It is up to the citizens of Serbia to respond as to whether they would like to live in such a society," he added to Agence France Presse, the same day. His comments followed the regime's direct or implicit closing down of television Studio B, Radio B2-92, Radio Index, and daily Blic, in the early hours of 17 May. Serb citizens responded by taking their protest to the streets, later on the same day. The international community, and especially its freedom of expression groups, issued an avalanche of condemnations, sharing in the outrage of the Serb journalists.
In Greece, though, the crackdown and the related reactions in Serbia and abroad were almost or totally "buried" in the main television newscasts on 17 May. While they were covered by the newspapers -with the usual couple of exceptions-, on 18 May, in a way that reflected their embarrassment with Milosevic's actions if not their disapproval of ... the Serb opposition's reaction. Moreover, no political party and no journalists' group cared to react to the events on 17 May, with the exception of the government spokesperson, Dimitris Reppas: his strong condemnation of the media crackdown, though, was hardly mentioned in the newspapers the next day.
The morning daily "Avghi," a notorious "outlier" of Greek media that persists in showing consistent sensitivity to civil society issues in Greece and abroad, showed once again how the matter could have been covered, even though its limited means force it to complete most stories much earlier than the other newspapers. This paper is affiliated with the small intellectually-oriented Progressive Left Coalition party and has a small circulation. On 18 May, it announced the story in its first page, and had inside the title: "Independent media in a stifling collar: Milosevic closed opposition Studio B." In addition to the facts and extensive references to the reactions in Serbia with statements by Batic, Korac, and Djindjic, it mentioned international condemnations by Reporters Sand Frontieres, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of Media, the Council of Europe, as well as the governments of France and Greece. Finally, in its commentary page, journalist Nikos Filis called on the Athens Dailies Journalists' Union (ESIEA) -that had remained silent, unlike when Serb state media were bombed by NATO a year ago- to take a stand.
"Eleftherotypia," the center-left afternoon daily with a variety of views on all matters, was the other exception. "Information muzzled" was the lead title in the one page devoted to the event. The content was similar to "Avghi"'s with additional information on preceding attacks against independent media since 1998 and student opposition group "Otpor," all that presented as persecution of freedom of expression, which was made it easier, it added, by the weakness of the opposition. In addition, the leading expert on Yugoslavia, Leonidas Hadjiprodromidis, had an analysis with the title "The regime's masks are off," noting that the regime is now showing its true totalitarian nature and threatens the country with civil war. He recounted past and recent repression, as well as the slandering attacks by the regime against the opposition and mainly the "Otpor," and predicted a civil war which would lead to the, certainly painful, overthrowing of Milosevic.
The country's largest (afternoon and center-left) daily "Ta Nea" opted for a small story in page 49 with the title "Serbia: newspaper's publication banned," in which the additional seizure of Studio B was reported via the Council of Europe statement. There was nothing else mentioned... Its sister morning paper, that had distinguished itself with a "correct" coverage of the 1999 NATO operations, stressed on the contrary the reactions: "Yugoslavia: Escalation of reactions to the closing down of a television and a radio station. The opposition to Milosevic responds with a campaign of disobedience." Its story was extensive and informative, but no comments were included.
The other major center-left (and afternoon) daily, "Ethnos," preferred to focus on the international reactions using words that imply, in the Greek context, hostility to the international community: "Yugoslavia: Milosevic under fire. Harsh attack by the USA, EU, Council of Europe, OSCE and other organizations for the government's decision to close Studio B." The information on the events in Serbia were preceded by quotes from the condemnations of the US State Department, Javier Solana, and Joshka Fischer, all names that are not very popular in Greece especially since last year's war. Again, the newspaper had no comment itself.
The center-right's major -and only "serious"- (morning) newspaper, "Kathimerini" simply ran an informative story, on "Opposition media muzzled." It included coverage of events and Serb opposition statements, but not of the international reactions or the demonstrations in Belgrade. While the other large and populist (afternoon) rightist paper "Eleftheros Typos" mentioned the story only in the short caption of a picture of demonstrating students in Belgrade, in which Studio B and "B-92" (sic) were mentioned as pro-Draskovic media... As for the last important (afternoon) rightwing daily, "Apogevmatini," a short story with the title "They 'quarrel' in Serbia," in which the regime's action against the media was almost justified, when presented as a result of the series of assassinations of Milosevic associates: no international reaction was mentioned. None of the (center-)right papers had any comments on the closing down of the media in Serbia.
The newspaper unabashedly supportive of Milosevic was certainly the communist morning daily "Rizospastis." The lead international news story had the title: "FR Yugoslavia: Opposition attempts mobilization with 'foreign backing.' Protests and calls for ... general disobedience towards the regime!" The Serb government statement announcing the crackdown was quoted in details to justify the action, while the reactions of the opposition and the briefing of the diplomats by it were presented with an irony. Interestingly so, the communist paper was the only other one that quoted the Greek government statement as indicative of the change of Greek foreign policy in the Simitis era.
Given the fact that the Greek government statement was made in the pressroom while the Yugoslavia stories were written by foreign news writers, the absence of it from all non-leftist papers can only be explained as the deliberate decision of political journalists who cover the pressroom to "bury" the Greek government's strong condemnation rather than to pass it on to their foreign editors. This view was apparently shared by the Greek Foreign Ministry's Internet daily "CyberThesis:" in its 18 May edition (updated at 15:02), there was absolutely no reference to the crackdown nor, naturally, to its condemnation by Greece...
Once again, it can be concluded that Milosevic keeps many friends in Greece, who, even when he is isolated internationally and cracks down on independent media are reluctant even to report the facts, let alone criticize him. If only the same thing happened in Turkey, the same media would ran major headlines, and all journalists' associations and political parties would issue strong statements on the spot. It is possible that, in the ensuing days, in view of the international reactions, as well as the need for Greece to show a credible face in the Balkans, newspaper and foreign ministry publication editors, as well as party spokespersons, may feel compelled to show finally their disapproval of the Milosevic crackdown. No one should be fooled by such belated actions: it is the gut reaction of the first day that reflects the real attitude of the Greek media and political scene.
Panayote Dimitras