In Greece, a scandal erupted over the new rules regarding the conduct of public assemblies. According to the trade unions of media workers, now journalists will be able to report on demonstrations only from the protected area provided by the police, and only by coordinating their actions with a specially designated law enforcement representative. The ministry in charge of this area, on Thursday, issued a statement that the proposal is advisory in nature. Nevertheless, the entire press is seething with indignation.
The threat comes from the police
Citizens’ Rights Minister Chrysochoidis will go to great lengths to cover up the violence from the security forces, criticizes Avgi:
“When the physical integrity of journalists was threatened during protests, the danger always came from the police. Not a single police officer was ever punished! So don’t take us for fools. What the Minister for the Protection of Citizens’ Rights Chrysochoidis wants is that there is no evidence of systematic and uncontrolled police action against their own citizens. … In plain language: this decision violates the principle of freedom of the press and the constitutional right of citizens to receive information. And it is aimed at concealing the arbitrariness of the police. This strategy won’t work now. We are not in Chile in 1973.“
This is the height of anti-liberalism!
The conservative newspaper Naftemporiki does not hide its indignation:
“This unprecedented prescription is based on the misconception that the press’s job is only to report on the actions and behavior of citizens — not government agencies. Moreover, journalists should do this work not on the basis of what they see with their own eyes, but only “in cooperation and on the basis of mutual understanding” with the police — this is precisely the wording contained in the text of the bill. … What could be more anti-liberal than a prescription that imposes the same ‘angle of view’ on all journalists and offers them one and only source of information — the police? What could be more dangerous for democracy than to inform the representatives of the departments that from now on all their actions become absolutely invisible to the public eye?“
