For the
last couple of years, but generally since the beginning, we have time and again
brought attention to how collaborative the mass media have proven themselves to
be with the fanatical support they have been extending to the Memorandum, the
various dictatorial governments (either under GAP or under GAP’s sidekick,
Papademos), making special reference to certain big shot, prime collaborators –
journalists flaunting an ideological stance that would have been coveted by the
most seasoned officer of the security battalions of the 40s, demanding from the
Greek People to commit suicide in favor of their bosses (all of whom are well
known, and I shall refrain from mentioning here the bankers – offspring of
fascists and assorted miasmas of Greek society, and of course well-proven
bigots and anti-Greeks).
But what we
seem to leave out of our discussion is the most important issue, a
fact that provides
sufficient official evidence that what we experience here in Greece is a
full-fledged party dictatorship, analogous to the most extreme soviet or
Nazi-led regime: The Greek Radio Council (ΕΣΡ).
ΕΣΡhave been entrusted with the quality control and overseeing the mass
media (television – radio) so that these media are and remain journalistically
objective, promoting multilateralism, informing people without manipulating
them, promoting the Greek culture and civilization, and defending the proper
use of Greek language, and in general, being pursuant to the principles of the
Constitution and serving the interests of the Greek People. At the inception of
the ΕΣΡ, these responsibilities
had initially been given to a consortium of Citizen listeners and
viewers, that was
disbanded after two or three years to be replaced by a committee of same, which
was also dissolved quickly to give its place to what we call today ΕΣΡ.
This
development is very important (as it took place during the infamous
1989-beginning of 1990) because we observe that all political parties gradually
but certainly have withdrawn control (even a superficial one) of the mass media
from the Citizens – the ultimate receivers of information by the mass media –
and kept such control in the hands of their own centers of power.
These parties had been forced to co-sign
the initial relationship of the mass media and their Citizen-led supervision,
so that they could justify the imposition of a special tax accruing to Greek
Radio Television (ΕΡΤ)as been compensatory. According to the pertinent law
that supports the imposition of such tax in favor of ERT, there is an effort to
justify the exaction of this sum by labeling it as ‘dues’ claiming that we pay
it as compensation for our right to receive ERT broadcasts, which broadcasts
(including news bulletins) however, are supposed to abide with all the
aforementioned principles of proper dissemination of information, support of
National Sovereignty, etc. The only guarantee that such broadcasting would abide
by these rules and regulations ended with the disbanding of the
initial viewers-listeners
consortium.
That
consortium as well as all Citizen access to broadcast control ceased but the
dues remained, and of course what also remained was the ΕΣΡ, which
supposedly ensures that all
the aforementioned regarding National Independence, multilateralism,
objectivity in the dissemination of information, etc are kept.
And here we
come to the point of finding out what ΕΣΡreally stands for…
According to the law supporting the institution
of ΕΣΡ, total and absolute control of the mass media
passes on to the parties. Every political party in the Parliament is
asked to propose and install completely on an arbitrary basis, their
own people as members of ΕΣΡon the sole condition that these
people have some relationship with the worlds of the mass media or are
themselves journalists (but only from the recognized unions of journalists) or
are ‘personalities’, without bothering to set up any sort of objective criteria
according to which someone may be characterized as such. From a total
of nine (9) places in the committee, the first party may
assign four (4) persons and the rest of the parties according to their
Parliamentary proportion.
The ΕΣΡ, staffed and run by party-appointed
personnel, is empowered to censor, delimit, select and determine the content of
every broadcast on every television channel, be it national or private, thus
shaping the information of the Greek People to fit their own will and
interests. ΕΣΡtherefore is in the complete and utter control
of the Parliamentary Parties, which are directly dependent on their promoters
to whom they answer, and not of course the Greek People. It is therefore
certain that ΕΣΡwill
tailor-make all broadcasting and mainly that IT WILL MAKE SURE THAT
THE GREEK PEOPLE
IS CONVINCED THAT, APART FROM FEW IGNORABLE EXCEPTIONS, ALL AGREE, OBEY AND
ABOVE ALL, DO NOT REACT.
It is
nothing less than the situation of the German mass media in the time of
Goebbels whereby the utter catastrophe of the German army at Stalingrad was
made known to the German people (who were under the impression that their army
was sweeping in Russia) a few months later, and when they did tell them, they
presented it as a minor mishap, certain to be put to rights. It is nothing less
that the semblance of tranquility and acquiescence broadcast around the end of
the war, so much so that the onslaught of the allied army onto Berlin itself
was a last moment’s announcement, while every hint or innuendo that Hitler
might lose the war after all was unofficially, but certainly, punishable by
death.
Naturally
we are all told that Greeks are asleep and non-reactive. Of course, we are all
told that the Greeks are suffering under the yoke but they largely concede to
it. Of course they would keep PASOK and NDP/Karatzaferis in the front news,
while in reality they have been cast and lost to the abyss, and of course the
left is left out, because those people staffing the left, are not real
leftists, and they are not truly interested to see that the people engage with
left philosophy, solutions and action that, at the same time, promote and
defend the Nation and the State. The demands of the Greek People, would have
forced the last bastion of partyism to show its true colors and reveal that
Pangaloses are there as well. Naturally the WMF is completely supported, and
all positions adopted by the foreigners in this affair are presented
as ‘indisputable’,
and so on and so forth.
Naturally,
the true reactions of the people are not made reference to, and instead they
broadcast that these people pay when they do not, that they condone when they
revolt, and whatever cannot be covered up (such as the Keratea affair, perhaps
the Steel Works, etc) are made to appear as special and isolated cases, and
indeed frown upon by the rest of ‘law-abiding and condoning citizens’.
We
therefore pay dues to ΕRT
so that we receive broadcasts with propagandistic content/advertising, promoted
and authorized by the parties, and hence, by law there is no Freedom of the
press in Greece
(at least in radio and television) during the whole post-junta period.
We however
can react to this. We can as Greek People, demand the presence of true
multilateralism in Greece.
The cost of the dues we all pay for ERT comes to about 51 euro per DEI counter.
ERT have officially admitted to the fact that the sum of over 350 million euro
per annum collected just from this dues is vital for its function (a rather
imprecise claim, given its other revenues plus all the state funding, i.e.,
extra paying coming from us via other routes). By co-signing the non-contentious
appeal we have drafted, we declare that if we are not given access (not only to
me personally, but to EVERY CITIZEN WISHING TO COUNTERACT BY HIS/HER POSITION/
INFORMATION THIS WHICH IS LED AND DISSEMINATED BY THE PARTIES) then we refuse
ON LEGAL AND SUBSTANTIVE GROUNDS TO WHICH ERT WOULD TO RESPOND BY LEGALLY
ADDRESSING IN WRITING, to continue paying this dues in favor of ERT, since this
dues is not even commensurate to its claimed compensatory character.
It is clear
that money is the fulcrum that rocks them. It is also clear that in one way or
another, and by means of our stated refusal to pay the DEI overtax, we have
already stood opposed to paying dues, and particularly non-compensatory
exactions, so by objecting to and
refusing to pay yet another dues billed on the same DEI bi-monthly bill will
further buttress our stance for the EETHDE and above all, by this action we
will defuse government and parties and their propaganda that they have been
serving us for so-called information, cultivation and civilization.
Read the
non-contentious appeal here (only available in Greek) and if you agree and wish to legally build your
right to have access to ERT, but also to reclaim all dues paid during the past
decades, co-sign it, using the special text available at the end of the
passage.
Translation courtesy of Michael T.