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...