[MGSA-L] Kostas Vaxevanis: "The only way for the Greek people to know about their own country is through the foreign press"

[June Samaras]

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/04/kostas-vaxevanis-only-way-greek-people-know-about-their-own-country-through-foreign


Kostas Vaxevanis: "The only way for the Greek people to know about
their own country is through the foreign press"
The Greek journalist, who was instrumental in the publication of the
"Lagarde list" of major tax evaders in October 2012, talks to the NS's
Daniel Trilling.

BY DANIEL TRILLING PUBLISHED 22 APRIL 2013 9:04

Kostas Vaxevanis is Greek journalist. As editor of the investigative
magazine HotDoc, in October 2012 he published the leaked “Lagarde
list” of major tax evaders – an act for which he has been pursued by
the Greek authorities, raising questions about a crackdown on
independent journalism. The New Statesman caught up with Vaxevanis
during a recent trip to London to receive Index on Censorship’s
Freedom of Expression Award.

New Statesman: In your acceptance speech for the Index award, you
raised the spectre of Greece’s dictatorship years. Is there any danger
of a return to that kind of period?

Vaxevanis: It is worrying what is happening in Greece as I said in my
speech. It is the first time since the last dictatorship that people
can’t rely on the press to see what is happening in their own country.
The Greek media for example didn’t cover the case while I was being
prosecuted a few months ago.

Every day in Greece, we face the effects of the crisis and there are
new measures that are being taken that goes against every right of the
public. These new regulations don’t even go through parliament – there
is actually a law where you can have a new decision signed by the
president under emergency clauses and then rectify it later by the
prime minister so they are basically governing the country under
presidential decrees and statutes.

They basically pass new laws in whatever way possible to serve certain
interests and parts of society and political systems. For example when
the agricultural bank of Greece, was supposed to pay millions [in
tax], a new law was passed that said they didn’t have to pay anything.

Many TV channels and newspapers are owned by business interests that
might benefit from such laws. Has political interference in the media
become more common as the crisis gets worse?

In Greece, like in many countries, there is a relationship where the
media tries to hold government to account and government will try to
hide things. It is ultimately a conflict of interest. Any kind of
independent journalism is seen as a threat.

For many years they managed to manipulate the media: for example, you
would have a journalist working in the government’s press office and
public PR offices and for big businesses. Often these are big
businesses that have links and dealings with the government.

During the crisis there has been a greater need for journalists to
speak out, but then they automatically become an enemy of the
government. I have just received a message from a friend and colleague
where he congratulates me for my [Index ] award, but apologises that
he can’t say anything about it this evening in his television
programme.

The cross-over between journalism and politics is common in Britain
and other countries, to a certain extent. What is different about
Greece right now?

Of course this is happening everywhere, it’s of course not just a
Greek problem, but it has gone to the next level where ministers have
complete impunity and they have methods of acting really fast to serve
their own interests. And of course this is amplified by the crisis.

For example one of the biggest scandals was with Proton Bank, where
the owner bought ten to twenty per cent of twenty-two different media
outlets, to make sure no one would write anything against him. And
there is no law to prevent a business from spreading in such a way.

The existence of privately-owned, unregulated television channels goes
back well before the financial crisis. What sort of long-term effect
has this had on Greek society? The TV channels have been blamed for
encouraging anti-immigration attitudes, for example.

They have a huge part of the responsibility for that culture of the
last ten or twenty years; consumerism and people not being engaged in
what is happening, and not caring about the impact of their political
action.

With immigration, in the last few years since the bailout, the role of
the media has been to create fear among the people. And the most
obvious way of creating fear would be to amplify the danger of
immigration in Greece. And we would often hear about [the far-right
party] Golden Dawn in the news. They would try to create the view:
“yes all of us who are in power might be corrupt, but if we stopped
being in power and being in control then there is always that danger.
So it is basically better to have this corrupt system than any
government at all.”

So the media were exaggerating the threat of Golden Dawn?

Yes but it was a two-way thing. By exaggerating the threat of Golden
Dawn they are giving them a voice and then it becomes bigger by
appearing as a threat and it gives them a new way of communicating
with the public.

What they are trying to do is presenting the “two opposites” view
where Golden Dawn is one extreme and [the left-wing] Syriza is the
other. They are trying to do what they are doing in Italy where they
say “well you have these two polar opposites, all you have to do is
come somewhere in the middle, where we are. We might be corrupt but
you sure don’t want any of those two.”

What happens in the media outside of Greece can have quite a big
effect on Greek politics. So for journalists and people outside of
Greece what is the most important thing they could be doing?

The only way for the Greek people to know about their own country is
through the foreign press. They played a significant role in my case.
While this was going on, during the prosecution, we had BBC,
Al-Jazeera, CNN treating it as breaking news while Greek media was
being quiet about it. Ten days ago I was given another award in Spain,
a Journalism Award and a Press Award – no one in Greece will ever hear
anything about either those things.

This is really the place to fight that control, in this day and age
the Greek people are not limited by the national boundaries and they
just look on the internet and find other sources of information. And
that kind of potential foreign media can have is very significant. The
role of social media is very important, I tweeted something in a press
conference earlier and that reached 300,000 people.

The risk of foreign media coverage is that you want to highlight the
problems but you might end up making Greece look like a unique case.
Is there anything journalists abroad should be wary of?

Obviously there are some very specific issues with journalism and
freedom of expression in Greece, but it is potentially a problem in
every country and it is something journalists have to deal with every
day.

If there was a similar case like mine in the UK the rights of
democracy would be raised by every media outlet instead of just one
newspaper. In Greece that would never happen. We have to do something
about it, demand answers. Every time someone tries to go against what
has happened or try to write something about it they will be accused
of all sort of horrible things, for example when I talked about the
Greek banks there were all types of blogs that mentioned my name and
claimed my involvement with the secret services.

When Reuters investigated the Greek banks, they were threatened with
being sued, and so was the Guardian [when it reported on the police
torture of protesters] . So it’s a multilevel issue where people need
to know what is happening and what has happened. Journalists need to
speak up and their voices have to be heard.


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June Samaras
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Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com