On Wednesday 12th June James Galbraith and I addressed a crowd of 2500 in Thessaloniki. After having visited the ERT’s Thessaloniki headquarters, were we had the honour and privilege of talking to ERT employees and the crowd of people that had gathered in support of public media, we walked over to the Vellidio Expo Centre were we delivered our talks on the Crisis. The events of the day had stirred up a great deal of emotion both in the crowd and in our own hearts. Here is James Galbraith’s exquisite talk. (If you want to watch my address, which I am afraid it is in Greek, click here.)
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Why am I defending a public broadcaster (ERT) that banned me, and which I always considred problematic?
14 JunLast night I spent a few hours, again, at ERT’s main building in Athens, keeping a finger on the ‘liberated’ organisation’s pulse, being interviewed (for the web tv broadcast that is keeping ERT’s voice alive) in tandem with my friend and colleague James Galbraith, listening to the excellent bands performing in the courtyard, soaking up the feeling occasioned by the spontaneous protest against the government’s closure of such a problematic public tv and radio organisation. Many foreign journalists ask me: Why are you defending a station that banned you and which you describe as problematic? Here is part of my answer as I articulated for the purposes of an op-ed piece to be published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung: Continue reading
A night at occupied ERT. A night to remember. A night that friends at the BBC, ABC, CBC ought to note
12 JunFor those of us who grew up in the Greece of the neo-fascist colonels, nothing can stir up painful memories like a modern act of totalitarianism. When the television screen froze last night, an hour before midnight, as if some sinister power from beyond had pressed a hideous pause button, I was suddenly transported to the 60s and early 70s when a disruption in television or radio output was a sure sign that another coup d’ etat was in the offing. The only difference was that last night the screen just froze; with journalists still appearing tantalisingly close to finishing their sentence. At least the colonels had the good sense of pasting a picture of the Greek flag, accompanied by military tunes… Continue reading
ERT (Greek state tv-radio) is dead: A blacklisted person’s lament
11 JunA few hours ago, the Greek government announced that state television and radio channels would be silenced at midnight. No public debate, no debate in Parliament, no warning. Nothing. ERT, the Greek version of the BBC, will simply fold its tent and steal into the night. As probably the only Greek commentator to have been blacklisted by ERT over the past two years, I feel I have the moral authority to cry out against ERT’s passing. To shout from the rooftops that its murder by our troika-led government is a crime against public media that all civilised people, the world over, should rise up against. Continue reading
Deutsche Welle: Is the IMF’s Greek Mea Culpa motivated by anger over Germany’s undermining of Banking Union?
9 JunDW’s most recent Top Story focused on the IMF’s report of Greece, and its famous Mea Culpa. DW quotes my view that ”… IMF economists are considering an exit from the Troika and are now paving the path for it… They don’t want to watch idly as Germany is trying to undermine the planned European banking union…” For the DW website click here. Alternatively read on: Continue reading
