In an unprecedented level of press-bashing, the Greek government has unleashed a viscous attack on both international (Financial Times, Guardian) and Greek (Proto Thema) media outlets for being critical of its policies, adopting the doctrine of “anyone against us is our enemy”.
In what seems to be an all out attack on media, domestic and foreign, the SYIRZA-led government has adopted an aggressive stance, to the point of using coarse language, like in the case against Proto Thema, revealing its intents on any critical publications.
Over recent days, international economic newspaper “Financial Times” came under fire by the Greek government for publishing an article questioning whether the government respects the independence of domestic financial institutions in the country in relation to the disagreements between the government and the country’s central banker and governor of the Central bank of Greece, Yiannis Stournaras.
Proto Thema also found itself in the government’s “crosshairs” for the revelations regarding Minister Olga Gerovasili who was involved in a case of conflict of interest and violation of the Greek constitution, as it was revealed she had been a shareholder in a medical services company in business with the state while simultaneously holding an PM seat.
The Greek government continued its tactics, reminiscent of authoritarian-style regimes of older days, by alleging the recent article published by British media outlet “Guardian”, which outlined the atrocious conditions in the Greek public hospitals, was more or less a fabricated piece of reporting, despite the fact that the article covered the period of 2011 and 2012 when SYRIZA was not in power.
In the culmination of its conspiracy theories against the press, the government released a non-paper alleging that reports of a rise in social security contributions was an “attempt to terrorise the citizens”.
