...
when the Troika entered the picture it seemed like a nice compromise:
the mass media outlets supported the austerity program, and the
lenders allowed them to continue operating in a state of dubious
legality ...
by Costas
Efimeros
Over
the last two days Greece’s largest television stations and the
journalists who work for them have come under two separate
investigations. These investigations, conducted by the Greek judicial
system and the competent oversight body, were initiated after the
ruthless YES-vote propaganda issued by the stations in advance of
last week’s referendum. Now, however, the same people under
investigation by the authorities are crying freedom of the press and
claiming that their voices are being silenced. Let’s take a look at
some of the facts:
Last
week in Greece, two mass demonstrations were held outside Greek
Parliament. NO vote supporters turned out en masse for a rally on
Tuesday and the next day saw a demonstration led by the YES camp.
Despite the comparable attendance at both rallies, the NO
demonstration – according to official figures – was broadcast by
all 6 of the nationwide television stations’ major news programs
for a cumulative 8 minutes and 33 seconds. YES supporters fared far
better, with 47 minutes and 32 seconds of on-air time dedicated to
their rally.
But
the propaganda problem doesn’t just boil down to numbers. Greece’s
biggest television station, MEGA Channel, broadcast a report claiming
that the capital controls had created mile-long lines outside the
banks. The station cited exaggerated figures and used pictures that,
it was later discovered, had been taken years ago in South Africa.
When a guest on MEGA asked the anchorwoman “why do you only
broadcast the YES viewpoint?” she replied “is it really our fault
if all factions in Greece favor a YES?” The results of the
referendum, which indicate that every region of the country no matter
how small registered a majority NO vote, should provide her with
answer enough.
From
the beginning of the crisis right up to today, the mainstream media
in Greece have ‘sold’ austerity’s formula to the nation’s
citizens. At the parliamentary investigations committee it was
revealed that major journalists had been travelling to the U.S. for
IMF seminars. In 2011, Wikileaks published Top Secret wire messages
from the American embassy in Athens regarding monitoring of the
country’s media outlets. According to these messages, the embassy
was even interfering in how talk shows were edited, in the interest
of projecting a more favorable image of the United States abroad.
Yannis Pretenteris, until last year Greece’s most popular
newscaster, even admitted in his book that he knowingly lied to the
Greek people every evening, but that he did so to help save the
country.
Since
the crisis began 3,000 journalists have lost their jobs. This has
created a climate of fear and uncertainty in the workplace, and has
only led to a hardening of the official line. Simply put, whoever
opposes the interests of the media company loses his or her job.
In
the past it had been claimed that, prior to the crisis, more
newspapers and magazines were published per capita in Greece than
anywhere else in Europe, and additionally that the existence of 6
nationwide channels was impressive indeed for a country of only 10
million. But the truth is that all of these media outlets were under
either the direct or oblique control of just seven families (five of
which are still in business today). For years these media moguls,
known in Greece as ‘oligarchs’, kept their damaging outlets alive
by taking out hundreds of millions worth of loans with no guarantees
whatsoever.
Those
behind Greece’s media outlets are either members of the large-scale
construction companies that have received government contracts for
nearly all infrastructures in the country, or shipping magnates who
control the oil and exports markets. Few do anything different, and
even in those cases a trail always somehow connects them back to the
Greek state. Greece has thus witnessed the creation of a triangular
network linking the government, banks, and mass media outlets, and it
is within this structure that attempts have been made to mold public
opinion so as to serve the common interests of all three.
From
the start of the crisis and the implementation of the austerity
program, all of the major mass media outlets rushed to defend the
harsh policies of Greece’s lenders. This was not a one-sided deal.
Even though there has been, ever since the first memorandum, a
provision for the imposition of a 20% tax on television advertising,
this is the sole measure which the Troika has allowed to be postponed
by means of a decree issued on 31 December every year – now for
five years running. But it goes beyond this: Greek television
stations operate in Greece without licenses, thanks to a 1989 bill
that granted trial licenses for research and development. And, in
case you haven’t yet tired of all this: the oligarchs, besides not
having paid for television licenses, for years haven’t even paid
taxes, according to the country’s accounting office, on their usage
of public frequencies. So when the Troika entered the picture it
seemed like a nice compromise: the mass media outlets supported the
austerity program, and the lenders allowed them to continue operating
in a state of dubious legality (the highest court in the country
-Council of the State- has already in two rulings decreed unlicensed
frequency use illegal).
All
of this was well established, and in recent years it also entered
into the consciousness of Greek citizens, who, in the most recent
surveys, ranked journalists even above politicians in the
‘unpopularity’ index. But this didn’t prevent the creation last
week of an unprecedented propaganda machine, the purpose of which was
to terrorize anyone who wanted to vote NO in the referendum.
The
breach of every journalistic ethic on a 24-hour basis and the use of
every means available to create a climate of fear in the national and
international media yesterday prompted investigations on two levels.
The Greek judicial system has now undertaken to examine charges made
by citizens regarding the dissemination of lies, while the
journalists’ oversight body has begun investigating individual
journalists, nearly all of whom are television newscasters in Greece.
In
the face of this development, the mainstream media have now begun to
wage a war of misinformation, primarily abroad. They denounce this
attempt at stifling the freedom of the press and characterize the
Greek prime minister as the Chavez of Europe. The same media outlets
that enjoyed access to 95% of the public (according to statistics for
television coverage in Greece released by the National
Telecommunications Service) and covered developments so one-sidedly
are now protesting that they are being stifled and interfered with.
In other words, the same media that earned Greece last place in
Europe in the rankings issued by Reporters without Borders for the
Freedom of the Press and a 99rd overall place in the world overall
(after Gabon) maintain that the quality of journalism will
deteriorate because the competent oversight bodies are overseeing
them.
Have
no illusions. This has all happened precisely because the mass media
outlets unrestrictedly funded by the banks are the same ones that
have foreign-language editions and issuing agreements with giant
international media companies. These are resources they will draw
upon so as to strike yet again at the current Greek government, whom
they’ve been fighting for years.
Their
only problem is that in Greece nobody buys their story anymore.
That’s why SYRIZA is in power despite the war that the media waged
in the run-up to elections, and that’s why despite the media’s
shock doctrine two out of three Greeks voted NO in the recent
referendum. Perhaps that’s why, as the data from the polls
demonstrates, young people are turning more and more to the web,
where besides the mainstream media pages they can also find efforts
such as ThePressProject.
In
conclusion, democracy in Greece is truly in trouble because of bad
journalism. But this is because of the bad journalism practiced by
the mainstream media – and not because the competent authorities
are now trying to impose some manner of checks on this unprecedented
phenomenon.
Source:
This also a very accurate description of the United States.
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