From the Press to the Polls and the Parliament

After yesterday’s Greek government reshuffle, no less than six ex journalists will occupy ministerial roles in the new bi-partisan cabinet under Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. It would have been seven if one of them hadn’t turn down the opportunity offered to her.

And I can recall at least three more MP’s in the current Greek Parliament who used to be professional journalists before they decide to drop the art of headline writing in the name of headline making…So, at least 10 out of 300 MP’s have worked as journalists in the past and 70% of those have been assigned senior Ministerial positions.

As an ex journalist myself, I should be delighted about this tremendous ability of Greek journalists and their appeal amongst the electorate, for, who knows, one day I may also become an elected official for my country.  Do not despair people, I have a day job!

But on a more serious note now, this observation says much about a Greek society which for decades has been brainwashed by the media into believing that our elected officials mirror the people of the country. In other words, we can only get what we deserve in terms of the quality of our leaders.

So, by the media’s own admission, journalists are nothing but an average-intelligence, corruption-prone, self-centered and egocentric bunch, whose only interest is anything else other than serving the people who vote for them.

I have tried to google ‘journalists turned politicians’ to be able to compare Greece with other countries but got little to no results, which makes me think that this is a phenomenon and a privilege mainly reserved for the demagogic demographic of Greek journalists.

If anything, this propensity to politics, demonstrates one more, well known fact, which mostly goes unnoticed; the bias and lack of impartiality in how political news are portrayed by the various journalists who have clear political aspirations and party allegiances.

One Greek National TV reporter who covers the Socialist Party reportage comes to mind as he was a candidate during the June 2012 elections – he failed to be elected – and he continues to cover the beat of the same party from the now illegal channel.

Shame, because had his campaign been successful, I would have had a really catchy headline for this post: “The ELLEVENTH PLAGUE”

Freedom of Speech vs Freedom to Think

With its decision to terminate the Greek national broadcaster, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has committed a major blunder that is likely to cause the dismantling of his cabinet, threatening to plunge Greece to a new round of uncertain electoral infighting during the most tense, turbulent and terrifying period in the country’s modern history.

The closure of the country’s only national broadcaster was the latest in a series of unpopular decisions that have only cemented the conviction that the crisis is far from over and solidified the resolve of the electorate to rid of a government that is considered to be authoritarian, aloof and totally disconnected from the Greek society.

Through his actions, Samaras has achieved the unthinkable; overnight he’s managed to create heroes and martyrs out of a privileged group of Greek workers with very few friends and sympathisers due to their organisation’s proven association with corruption and fraud. The continuous rainfall hasn’t deterred tens of thousands of Athenians to rally behind the journalists and technicians of ERT flocking outside its headquarters at the northern suburb of Aghia Paraskevi.

In doing so, the long whistling sound that accompanies the frozen picture in the frequency where ERT broadcasted continuously for decades, blanked out every other sound in Greek households across the country bringing shivers down to the spine of every Greek old enough to remember the night, back in 1967, when democracy in Greece, was replaced for seven long years, by the dictatorial regime of the junta.

In footballing terms, Samaras and his advisors have scored an own goal of epic proportions as they failed to fully analyse the likely impact and outcome of such action. In political terms, they have opened a door that no one knows where it is actually going to lead the nation to. In laymen’s terms, he has proven that, despite his above average height and the untouchable image he is trying to project around his persona, he remains anything but a mediocre, unreliable and dangerous little man who happened to make a career in the Greek politics, just like thousand other morons  before him did.

Samaras pulled the plague in an unconstitutional act that may bring unpredictable dimensions as far as freedom of speech is concerned in the country which built the Acropolis and gave birth to Socrates. Let’s at least hope that they don’t have the means to deny us the FREEDOM to THINK.

And talking about thinking, think this: In the last few hours the Greek government has issued an official warning to the various private broadcasters who are currently relaying ERT’s illegal programming that they will face penalties unless they stop. The irony is that none of Greece’s private TV and radio stations have actually obtained a legal license to operate rendering all of them illegal. KEEP THINKING...

 

A Lost Signal - Symbol of a Lost Generation

 Greece’s national TV stations ‘ERT’, ‘NET’ and ‘ERT3’ as well as the network’s associated radio stations  stopped  broadcasting last night as the government ordered their closure in the name of fiscal reforms and public finance restructuring imposed by the IMF, the EU and the ECB.

The government has pledged that a leaner and more efficient public broadcaster will emerge in the next few weeks to fill the information gap, especially for the 10 million Greek expats who heavily relied on the services of ERT for the goings on back in the motherland.

My immediate reaction was that of anger and bitterness against the Greek government and those representing it. It was not only that I was bereft for losing the only Greek language TV station I had available as an expat but also because 2,600 more unemployed are about to join the doll  queues in a country flooded by 1.3 million who rely on government handouts to make a living.

But then, I became a bit more open and receptive to the various opinions on the same subject that started creeping in the Greek blogosphere which as I am writing these lines, is the only information channel dealing with the issue in depth, since every other Greek mass media has gone on strike – and in a classic irony, self- imposing an information blackout on yet another Greek tragedy.

Those views are as diverse as the interests and motives of those expressing them – of course, nothing new there.

But if I could add my view to all those scattered across the full spectrum of the land’s digital landscape, whether from the right, the left, the centre or the extremes, I would conclude that:

1)      ERT has been a villain and victim at the same time. It has been victimized for sucking the oxygen out of the Greek tax payer for nearly half a century and it has also been praised for the mostly neutral approach to its current affairs coverage and for giving a forum to the complete political spectre, irrespective and away from party allegiances or vested commercial interests.

2)      However, those who blame it, tend to forget that its blemishes have been due to the relentless cronyism practices precipitated by the interchanging socialist and conservative governments’ insatiable greed for corruption and voracious appetite for votes.

3)      By the same token, those who applaud its contribution to the news industry also prefer to ignore that the antics and archaic – almost primitive – attitude and mindsets of the few Unionists who festered inside ERT’s ailing body for 42 years helped create a monstrosity whose only goal has been to reward a large number of mostly inept, incapable and inefficient public servants who lived a life of luxury at the expense of the vast majority of the Greek people.     

Who is right? Who is wrong? Who is accountable?

In a country where democracy, meritocracy and egalitarianism have lost their true meanings, in the land of the beautiful blue where the society’s dominant colour is grey, in the Greece of 2013 which has been enslaved to international creditors for generations to come, there can only be two answers for each of the above questions: “WHO ISN’T?”  and “WHO CARES?”

Signal is lost. Let’s at least make sure hope isn’t…