Greece's Hate Media Breed Popular Hate Culture

AIM Athens, 21 February, 1998

Under the title "Press Wearing A Yellow Kilt," [kilt is here the translation of foustanela, a traditional wear of men in Greece and in Albania similar to the kilt] the, exceptional by Greek standards, team of investigative journalists known with their collective name Ios (Virus) reminded the readers of the Sunday edition of Eleftherotypia (E) (1/2/1998) of how even the country s supposed serious newspapers had engaged in unscrupulous yellow journalism a few years ago, at the time of nationalist paroxysm, i.e. between 1992-1995. These newspapers, with the largest circulation in their category, were morning conservative daily Kathimerini (K), liberal Sunday weekly Vima (V), liberal evening daily Nea (N), and self-proclaimed Greek Economist weekly Economikos Tachydromos (ET) (the latter three belong to the oldest and most poweful Lambrakis press group). For example, one had discovered "250,000 pure [sic] Greeks living in the area of Skopje" [as they were calling the Republic of Macedonia] (K, 1/1/92); another claimed that "Gligorov s government prepares an offensive military machine" when that country was merely trying to organize its first ever 30,000-men strong army (V, 7/11/93); a third one had for months been engaging in a character assassination campaign against Greek anthropologist Tasoula Karakasidou, internationally respected for her work on Macedonians in Greece, because she "had sided with the enemy, and was lavishly paid for her historical drivel, apparently [sic] reproducing the theories of komitatzi [i.e. member of the Bulgarian Komitet in the Macedonian struggle in early 1900s] Sandanski" (ET, 1/7/93); a fourth one accused Agence France Presse Athens bureau chief Alain Navarro for having depicted "an alleged anti-Semitic climate which prevails in Greece" (N, 27/1/95), when the latter had only quoted an opinion poll carried out by the newspaper s publisher Lambrakis Foundation which showed that 57% of Greeks have an aversion for Jews! With rare exceptions no medium, intellectual, or politician reacted then against this hate speech.

In the late 1990 s, nationalist hysteria has supposedly disappeared and the current government has repeatedly claimed it wants to implement a pragmatic foreign policy. However, it is certainly not helped by the media which continue to "wear yellow kilts." When dealing with human rights and minority issues or with foreign policy towards Greece s neighbors, they are usually full of deception and hate speech. They are obviously interested not in informing but in disinforming their readership or audience so as the latter keep all prevailing negative stereotypes towards neighbors and internal minorities. There was ample evidence of that phenomenon in early 1998.

First came the ritual coverage of the annual State Department s human rights report, released on 30/1/98. "They even discovered a Slav-speaking minority in Greece!" was the title of N (31/1): never mind that the existence of tens of thousands of such Slav-speakers in Northern Greece has been mentioned in all such annual reports of the 1990 s; was referred to as one of the country s major human rights problems area in all serious Greek and international reports; or has recently been acknowledged even by some minor Greek political parties. The serious looking liberal evening daily Exousia (31/1) not only wondered about the reference to a Slav-speaking minority, but went as far as devoting to it an editorial with the headline "False step of the US the State Department report" (31/1). The US were also blamed for having insisted on the multitude of revocations of the citizenship of minority Greek citizens under the notorious Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Code, though that article was reportedly abolished one week before the release of the report (which was, nevertheless, covering the period of 1997). Given the government s multiple declarations in 1997 that Article 19 was going to be abolished, claimed the newspaper, such references were unnecessary. Never mind that year after year, ever since 1990, Greek governments had been promising such abolition, hence making such statements unreliable. Worse, the newspaper took for granted the abolition, whereas the only thing known then was a decision of the Council of Ministers to table a bill abolishing the article, a decision yet to be implemented a month later

Ten days later, the US Embassy in Athens issued a statement pointing to a "technical error:" two reporters were correctly mentioned to have been charged in mid-1997 under criminal statutes including those dealing with espionage; but, in addition, it was mentioned, inaccurately, that they had been found guilty, instead of that a high bail and a travel ban were posted based on "demonstrable proof of guilt;" K (10/2) and E (11/2) nevertheless deliberately distorted the statement to claim that Americans had admitted having wrongly included the whole case, and in that way, to cast doubt at the whole report s credibility.

Eleftheroptypia is indeed an interesting phenomenon. It publishes the Ios dossiers which are not only very well researched but also consistently accurate and non- if not anti-nationalist. More often, however, it is inclined to follow the dominant politically correct line which refutes the presence of Macedonians and Turks in Greece. So, on 18 and 19/2, in the most read para-political op-ed column, the newspaper s correspondent in Salonica implied that the two Turkish minority deputies Galip Galip (of the governing socialist PASOK) and Birol Akifoglu (of the opposition conservative New Democracy) must be expelled from their respective parties and from Parliament for having dared declare that the minority they represent is Turkish. The former must be expelled also, for having been elected as president of the minority s High Consultative Committee of Western Thrace Turks with the alleged support of the latter. Similar was the coverage by N. (19/2), by the largest selling conservative evening daily Eleftheros Typos (19/2), renown for its nationalism and populism, and by the notorious racist, fascist and ultra-nationalist weekly Stohos (18/2), whose article was of striking resemblance to E s comment of the same day. This convergence confirmed the widespread impression, shared by observers of minority issues in Greece, that, in eight out of ten cases, Greek newspapers cover these issues and provide (dis)information based on one and only source, the corresponding specialized state agencies.

Moreover, even when the issue is not as sensitive, Greek media do not fare much better. In mid-February, one of the country s most popular singer, Stelios Kazantzidis, was engaged in a highly publicized trial with a leading composer, Christos Nikolopoulos. To discredit the latter, the singer used a vast array of anti-Semitic attacks, calling him "agent of the Jews," and denouncing a "Jewish plot" and "an international Jewish conspiracy." These statements were made repeatedly in front of television cameras and even in the courtroom. Subsequently they were quoted in the newspapers. There was absolutely no reaction for a few days: no journalist, media, or intellectual criticized Kazantzidis; while, though Greece has laws condemning incitement to racial hatred, no prosecutor nor any judge thought of invoking them in the courtroom where the singer was committing the crime in flagrante. In dismay, the Central Jewish Council, which generally downplays Greeks notorious anti-Semitism, issued a strong statement of protest: the media simply reproduced it without any comments (14/2).

This lack of reactions led the country s foremost composer, Mikis Theodorakis, to send an equally strong letter in which he argued that "the comeback of the zombis of racism is a disgrace for Greece," adding that "in such moments, silence means guilt." Again, the media merely published the letter (16/2): one, E, under the title "Theodorakis for Jews" (!!!). With the exception of some rare and marginal voices, nearly all Greek media, politicians and intellectuals, with their silence, confirmed their "guilt." Indeed, many opinion surveys confirm that Greek public culture is anti-Semitic, racist, extreme nationalist, and xenophobic. This intolerance towards others results mainly from a tolerance of hate speech concerning others, which, in any other European country with the long democratic tradition of Greece, would have led to mass reactions.

Here is another example of compromising silence where there was a need for a clear-cut stand, a tendency which characterizes Greek political culture on matters of human rights. Fifteen months ago, a conservative deputy tabled a question to the government on the alleged Jewish origins of then Deputy Foreign Minister Christos Rozakis and their "possible ensuing commitments to other countries" this official may have. At the time, the leader of the Jewish community in Greece deplored "the absence of any reaction by the deputy s party and the Greek parliament." Prime Minister Costas Simitis, many months later and after Rozakis had resigned, while inaugurating the European Union s Year Against Racism addressing an audience of NGOs, minorities and migrants, finally used strong words to denounce that action as well as some incidents of police violence against Roma and of mass Albanophobia fueled by media. No one will ever be able to quote Simitis, though: the official text of that 26/2/1997 speech as distributed then and available since, also in the Internet, does not include any of these references, probably withdrawn so as not to upset those he was denouncing.

No wonder then that the same conservative deputy, George Karatzaferis, a year later, in mid-February 1998, thought wise to suggest that the country s neo-Nazi group of "Chrysi Avghi" (Golden Dawn) joins his own party, New Democracy; in exchange, these extremists will be offered a Deputy Ministerial post when the conservatives come to power. A few days later, ND s new leader Costas Karamanlis expelled six deputies who refused to follow the party s line during a parliamentary vote on a law on public companies: Karatzaferis was among those who applauded the move. Karamanlis, like most media, politicians, and intellectuals found no time to address Karatzaferis previous suggestion. They were busy arguing whether these expulsions were a blow to democracy .

Greek political culture is not inherently more intolerant than the culture of other, especially West, European societies. However, it appears so, because the education system stresses the self and does not even mention the other; hence, society lacks those reflexes will not leave anywhere else unchecked and unopposed such manifestations of racism, anti-Semitism, extreme nationalism, and xenophobia. In Greece, on the one hand, the intellectual leadership appears, at best, indifferent to such profoundly undemocratic practices; on the other, the, sometimes clumsy, demands by minorities are frequently met with very strong reaction if not condemnation. Hence, the average citizen is led to consider minority claims rather than racism as the main threat to democracy.

Panayote Dimitras

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