Risks and Threats for Democracy. Corruption in Greece and the Role of Investigative Journalism

ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATIONS ΜA IN DIGITAL MEDIA, COMMUNICATION & JOURNALISM RISK COMMUNICATION & CRISIS JOURNALISM

Risks and Threats for Democracy. Corruption in Greece and the role of Investigative Journalism

Anna-Maria Charalambi

Supervisor: Professor Kaitatzi-Whitlock Sofia

THESSALONIKI 2019

Contents:

1. Introduction…………………………………………2

2. Investigative Journalism…………………………....4

3. Journalism Ethics…………………………………...6

4. Media and Democracy...... 10

5. The Era of Crisis……...……………………………13

6. How Journalists attributed to the Greek economic Crisis……………………………………………….18

7. The Rising of Right-wing Forces in Greece…….....21

8. The Appreciation of the Issue by Journalists and Academics………………………………………….23

9. Concluding remarks …….…………………………33

10. Bibliography………………………………………..35

11. Appendixes

i. Questionnaire………………………………….39

ii. The Opinion of Greek Journalists and Scholars translated in English…………………………..40

1. Introduction

A crisis of Democracy and its values is nowadays considered to be an extremely wide and complex issue that it tends to threaten many countries around the world. But how could such an issue be examined and elaborated adequately within the limits of a dissertation? I first decided to focus on the case of Greece and particularly in the period of the recent financial crisis, from 2008 to 2018. In this frame, I decided to separate my dissertation into three thematic pillars. The first one deals with the potential risks and threats towards Democracy. The second one examines the corruption that Greece has been experiencing over the last decade, which is obvious through the crisis of political representation, the unstable political reality, the extremely high unemployment rates, the anger and disappointment of Greek people and the general feeling of insecurity that dominates the lives and choices of its citizens. Thirdly I am elaborating on the role and the importance that journalism plays in the reflection and the mediation of this political reality. More specifically I question whether or not Journalism can contribute to the security of the democratic values, structures and functions.

In order to fulfill my initial purpose and goal, I decided to start with the last issue and first discuss the importance of journalism, especially the field of Investigative Journalism and Journalism Ethics in order to elucidate the ground as to the presence of a strong and independent journalism should be and further to establish and clarify if journalism is functioning properly or not. Then, I focus on today’s media, after separating them into different categories and question on whether or not they evolved and are able to be the main area where public dialogue can be achieved. Of course, I could not exclude a brief representation of the Era of crisis, the source of almost every challenge and threat Greek people have to face in a daily basis. Moreover I distinguish two cases that stand as a landmark in the Greek political reality and I wonder if they could be considered as signs to evince a democratic crisis. First, there is the rising of right-wing elements in Greece, with the representation of Golden Dawn in the Greek Parliament and secondly, the 2015 Greek referendum and its handling by the Greek government.

To this effect, I opted that it would be interesting enough to display the topic of the dissertation more thoroughly and therefore I decided to put these questions also to Greek journalists and academics and ask for their opinion and evaluation of the situation. In this goal, as an investigation tool, I used a series of semi-structured interviews which allowed me to approach many issues and broaden my perspective on the theme of my research. Researchers choose to use interviews for many reasons. They can be used as a method to gather important information from individuals about their acts, preferences, opinions or practices. Interviews can also be used to collect background information or to tap into the expert knowledge of an individual (“Data Collection Methods. Semi-Structured Interviews and Focus Groups”, 2009, p.24). In this case, I have chosen to contact journalists and academics because I think highly of their opinion on such issues as it is professionally more relevant, integrated and reliable. The nature of Journalism allows its practitioners to detect the pathogenicity and toxicity within a society as well as find ways to improve the situation. Academics on the other hand, have a deep and more systematic approach on the concepts of Democracy, can identify and detect the alarming threats against its values and are able to predict and warn about recurring mistakes. “Semi-structured interviews are often used in policy research. In semi-structured interviewing, a guide is used, with questions and topics that must be covered [...] this kind of interview collects detailed information in a style that is somewhat conversational. Semi-structured interviews are often used when the researcher intends to delve deeply into a topic and to understand thoroughly the answers provided” ( ibid, p.27). There are used seven questions under the topics of democratic crisis, Greek political representation, freedom of opinion, the rising of radical right in Greece, the 2015 controversial referendum and the role of Investigative Journalism. The questionnaire that was delivered to the interviewees can be retrieved in the Appendix 1, page: 34. Each interview was conducted in person and was a unique opportunity to have an interesting conversation and share opinions with my interviewees. For this reason, I need to thank each and every one of them for being so kind and willing to offer me some of their personal time. I appreciate it deeply and without their help I wouldn’t be able to complete my project and fulfill my initial purpose.

2. Investigative Journalism

Watergate, a closer look to what Investigative Journalism really is.

It was the 17th of June 1972 when five men attempted to break into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex, just about a mile from the White House. Later on a security guard discovered a tape on a door latch, called the police and the greatest investigation of all time had just been started. The Watergate scandal is by far the most famous investigation in newspaper history as it involves two well-known Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the US Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA and eventually the White House and President Richard M. Nixon himself. Woodward and Bernstein with a little help from their anonymous source called “Deep Throat”, who was later unmasked as the FBI’s number two Mark Felt, managed to uncover and later connect the links between the break-in at the Watergate complex and a subsequent cover-up that involved every single factor mentioned above (O'Connell, June 24, 2012, Forbes, 2005, p.5).

Their work was mainly focusing on following the money trial which led from the men who committed the burglary, to “CREEP”, an acronym for committee to re-elect the President Nixon, which had a slush fund to pay for every illegal activity the president ordered. All of their stories were strongly criticized and denied by the White House until presidential appointments secretary revealed that all conversations and phone calls in Nixon’s office had been taped since 1971. Following a great investigation on the tapes it was proved that the President had lied to the nation, to his closest aides and to his own lawyers for more than two years and of course we are led to the conclusion that every single word Woodward and Bernstein wrote was true. The world was shocked and President Nixon was facing the near-certain prospect of impeachment by the House and conviction in the Senate, which made him announce his resignation on the 8th of August 1974 and become the very first U.S president to resign ( Perlstein, 2018, O’Connell, 2012)

The Watergate scandal is not only considered to be the biggest in political history around the world but it is also the greatest example of an Investigate Journalism work that inspired and continuous to inspire generations of journalists ever since. Watergate is not only a dream story for every ambitious young reporter, but it is a constant reminder of the power that Journalism has. Not to forget, back then Richard Nixon was the most powerful elected leader in the world and they were just a couple of young reporters.

Executive director of the World Press Institute, an American nonprofit educational organization, John Ullmann also uses the Watergate scandal as a characteristic Investigative Journalism example. He supports that real investigative journalism is the result of a reporter’s own

4 enterprise, so he regards the Watergate Scandal as investigative journalism because it was the result of genuine spadework by a group of two charismatic reporters in order to corroborate information passed on them by their top informant (Forbes, 2005, p. 5).

When it comes to the definition of investigative journalism many support that there should be first a distinction between general investigations in areas such as consumer issues, and more serious investigations conducted into corruption, corporate crime, political scandals etc. The actual term “investigative journalism” is used to cover a range of reporting activities, from simple news-based enquiries to undercover operations resulting in a final expose or scoop (Wiesand, 2016, pp. 205-206, “What is Investigative Journalism?”, retrieved: 13/3/2019). On the contrary to popular belief there are still many who believe that the whole concept of investigative journalism is a myth, a simple extension of what good journalism should really be.

It would be interesting enough to take a closer look on the view of two acclaimed professors regarding the definition of investigative journalism. First would be Anton Harber, Caxton Professor of Journalism and Media Studies and acknowledged journalist in South Africa. Professor Harber highlights that in order to define investigative Journalism we should first make a distinction between “proactive and responsive journalism”. In other words responsive journalism is when people respond to an event and report on press statements and general public activities. However, investigative journalism tends to focus on cover or non-public activities which are usually against the public good (quoted in Forbes, 2005 pp. 1-2). According to Mr. Harber’s opinion, it is really important for journalists to keep in mind the idea of investigative reporting as a public service because only this way they can feel the responsibility to the public authority they represent. In addition, there is also a great interest in Dr. Howard Barrell’s opinion. Dr. Barrell, former Mail and Guardian editor and now a teacher in journalism schools in United Kingdom defines investigative journalism as: “Reporting undisclosed facts which, as a matter of public interest, one believes to belong in the public sphere and the uncovering of such facts involves concerted investigation by one or more journalists in a newspaper”. Dr. Barrell strongly underlines the fact that in order to be a successful investigative journalist a particular level of skills is more than necessary and it requires years for a good journalist to evolve (quoted in Forbes, 2005, p.3).

Overall, there are some key-words that scholars, academics and journalists themselves seem to share when they refer to investigative journalism and its standards. Truth seeking, fact finding, cross-checking sources and corroboration are only some of these words along with journalist’s responsibility to serve the public good. When a conscientious journalist examines crucial events beyond the normal standards of reporting in order to get to the core of complex issues and to prove that his/her initial suspicion or hypothesis was right that is a characteristic example of investigative journalism (Berger, 2017, pp. 7-8, “What is Investigative Journalism?”, retrieved: 13/3/2019). In recent years no one can deny the great impact that investigative journalism has especially when there are well-known cases of politicians who resign, fraudsters who got

5 imprisoned or cases where public policy has changed and conditions were improved for the citizens.

3. Journalism Ethics

Since the late 1970s, when the Watergate scandal gained the attention of both public and the professional journalistic world, the concern about journalism ethics has increased dramatically. More and more conversations took place within the journalism community on the controversial and complex relationship between the news media and political institutions, as well as the right practices that a good journalist should follow.

In order to define the word “ethics” we should refer to the Greek work “ethikos”, where it comes from, meaning moral in the English language. Many Greek dictionaries agree to the wording of Henry G. Liddell and Robert Scott in the definition of morality as “the ability to distinguish whether an action is good or bad” (The Great Dictionary of Greek Language, no date, p.435). But why do journalists need professional ethics? It is common knowledge that we live in a world that is moving fast and changing constantly and a good journalist should find a way to keep up to all these changes. Unfortunately the pressure that journalists experience from the news rooms in order to provide them constantly with interesting, gripping or moving stories combined with the tight deadlines have led many journalists to concern more about bringing a story to their supervisor or employer than how they got that story or whether it is truthful enough. Moreover, it is not rare that some journalists can forget about their obligation to be loyal to the readers (Frost, 2016, pp. 9-12).

An example of such a misleading behavior is the 1996 story of journalist Janet Cooke. In the post-Watergate era of big stories the 25 year old woman from Toledo managed to make her way up to Washington Post. On the 28th of September 1980 Cooke’s story “Jimmy’s World” was finally published at Washington Post’s first page. The story was about an 8 year old boy who was a heroin addict and gained such an attention that if that incident had happened today we could easily say that it “went viral”. On April 13, 1981 Cooke was awarded the Pulitzer for her story, the dream prize for every journalist. Apparently the story was later on revealed as a hoax. Cooke confessed that “there is no Jimmy and no family. It was a fabrication. I want to give the prize back” and the foundations of trust the press had built till that point were never the same again (Mike Sager, spring 2016).

Despite such cases, a good journalist needs to be loyal to both the readers and his/her employer by bringing stories that are accurate and truthful and in which the appropriate respect was shown. It is definitely not easy to gain and then maintain readers trust. The only way to ensure trust from everyone is to never let them down. In order to establish such a difficult achievement the Society of Professional Journalists introduced the SPJ Code of Ethics. The organization’s primary mission is to promote recognition of journalism as a profession by choosing and acknowledging certain mode of professional conduct as ethical. The basic ethical principles of journalism after many amendments are four:

• Seek truth and report it

Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.

• Minimize harm

Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.

• Act independently

The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve the public.

• Be accountable and transparent

Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one’s work and explaining one’s decisions to the public (https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp)

The SPJ code of Ethics composed originally back in 1926 and received its first revision in 1973, then it got revised again in 1984, 1987, 1996 and finally in 2014. According to its preamble, the duty of journalists is to enlighten the public by providing them only with the truth in order to maintain the foundations of justice and democracy.

Within the global journalistic community there is an acceptance of these ethical principles that are listed above from the vast majority of the journalists. Furthermore, between those principles lies the social responsibility theory of the press in which the news media have a responsibility to the society in order to provide people with all the information they need, so that they can be active participants in a democracy. When citizens want to fulfill their obligations in a democracy they must first make sure that they have an accurate and reliable picture of the world and the latest news. “This idea is often referred to as vital information premise”(Iggers, 1999, pp. 46-47).

However, when it comes to Investigative Journalism things can sometimes be slightly different. Many investigative journalists in order to remain loyal to their obligation to bring truthful news to the public they seem to use ethically questionable methods that are only justifiable within the profession and are accepted only in circumstances when the material cannot be obtained by other means. Such widely known practices are telephone bugging or extracting information from banks or several similar institutions. Of course these methods should be carefully used and avoided as much as possible because any further abuse of them could potentially put media’s and journalist’s credibility at great risk (Forbes, 2005, pp. 57-58; Frost, 2016).

On April 4, 2018 the story of Rukmini Callimachi attracted worldwide attention soon after it was published by the New York Times and many questions were raised among the readers on the ethical and legal considerations from the journalistic point of view. Let’s first take a closer look at the case. Terrorism correspondent Rukmini Callimachi, who was covering ISIS since 2014, during her five trips to Iraq over more than a year, managed to gather thousands of files abandoned by the ISIS militants. The documents were attracted from the desks, shelves and drawers of the public services and the houses the militants once worked and lived. The files were estimated to be more than 15.000 pages but more importantly within those pages there can be found answers on many crucial questions regarding ISIS and their practices. For example, how did such a violent group hold onto so much land for so long or what was eventually their dream. Of course Callimachi and her team came across many difficulties during their investigation. The language and exhaustion are only some of these. “The danger of land mines and booby-traps hung over our team. In one villa, we found a collection of records — but could search only one set of rooms after security forces discovered an unexploded bomb”, reported Callimachi (Callimachi, 2018).

Although Callimachi and her team did an outstanding and enlightening job in investigating and then publishing “The ISIS Files”, many readers of the New York Times had second thoughts on whether the group has overstepped some ethical boundaries during their investigation or not. To everyone’s surprise the New York Times seems to have handled public objections the best possible way. They invited the readers to submit their questions regarding “The ISIS Files” so that the journalists could give their own answers. Here are some examples:

“Is it possible that taking these documents was unethical? Would the better option to have been to turn them into the Iraqi Ministry of Defense?” asked Sam McRee, an undergraduate at North Carolina State University. Michael Stackman, New York Times international editor responded to Mr. McRee “Dear Sam, I understand how this looks from here. Put yourself on a battlefield, where almost everything around you has been destroyed and turned to rubble and the only authority for any distance is the Iraqi military. The New York Times collected these documents to help explain how a terrorist group like ISIS was able to control such a large area for as long as it did. This is the real story, not one filtered through a government official. It is ISIS in its own words and deeds. How powerful and important. Because the documents were abandoned and in many cases at risk of being destroyed, we decided it was best to gather them, document them and

8 make sure they are available in a safe and responsible way for research. As stated above, the originals will also be given to the country’s government”. Another worth mentioned question was that of Sean Lee, a PhD candidate in political science in Northwestern University “What possible journalistic value comes from not redacting the names of normal Iraqis in these documents? Has it not occurred to you that you could be putting their lives in danger? Ms. Callimachi claims that redacting people's names is tantamount to censorship, yet The Times redacts information all of the time in documents that it releases. The WikiLeaks documents are a perfect example, where the names of buildings under U.S. surveillance in Iraq were redacted. Is it the position of The Times that protecting something like U.S. surveillance operations in Iraq is really more valuable than protecting the identity of normal Iraqis?”. Ms. Callimachi replied to him “Dear Sean, thank you for your question, and for your care. Please know that we would of course remove identifying information if we believed there was a risk to a civilian’s safety”. (“Why We Collected ISIS’ Internal Documents, and What Happens Next”, May 31, 2018).

Overall, how New York Times handled that incident and their reaction towards it, is a modern example of ethical journalism, since they remained loyal to all four ethical principles SPJ declared. They first managed to seek truth and report it, minimize harm by balancing the public’s need for information against potential harm and last but not least act independently and be transparent and accountable. What is most important is that journalists took responsibility over their work and explained their decisions and their practices to the public in order to encourage them to a productive dialogue that could only strengthen their between relationship and enhance both journalist’s and media’s credibility.

4. Media and Democracy

Thomas Jefferson, who served as the third president of the United States, once said “If it were left to me to decide whether we should have a government without a free press or a free press without a government, I would prefer the latter” (quoted in Choi and James, 2006, p.23)

Today’s modern societies in order to achieve a balance between the administrative state and a capitalist economy seem to depend strongly on the mediating functions of an independent and responsive public space. The term “public sphere” was created and first used by the German sociologist Jugern Habermas. Habermas uses this term when he wants to refer to that field of active and participatory social life where public opinion but also where public will is articulated (Habermas, 2009, p.140). According to Habermas the “public sphere” must first be accessible to every single citizen and there should be free access to information. Furthermore, the media that are responsible for transmitting the news and information should be accessible to those who can be affected by them but most importantly, there can’t be any “public sphere” without the attribution of constitution guarantees.

Overall, democracy requires a state of civil relations where people should be allowed to freely take part in the decision making process and have access to mass media and other information networks in order to reassure that they would be fairly informed and educated to make an effective use of the information that are being circulated inside the “public sphere” (McNair, 2003, pp. 45-46).

Since it has already been alleged that the existence of liberal governments is a combination of freedom along with constitutional guarantees, Habermas suggested three normative theories of democracy that should be applied in a modern society. At first there is “the legal protection of the private sphere”. This protection can be accomplished through a system of equal liberties and equal access to administrative courts for every citizen. Secondly, there is “the political participation of as many citizens as possible”. In other words, equal and universal rights in participation and communication for everyone must be guaranteed, along with a productive competition among the different political parties for the predominance of the ones who managed to gain the trust of the majority. Last but not least, Habermas introduced “the appropriate contribution of a public sphere to the formation of considered public opinions”. The German philosopher highlighted strongly the importance of the free press and the provision of a plurality of diverse mass media within a society, as well as the prevention of monopolization of public communication arenas by any kind of social, political or economic motives (Habermas, 2009, pp. 139-141).

At this point it would be useful to address the related discourse of the Italian politician and sociologist Noberto Bobbio on the characteristics of a liberal democracy. Noberto Bobbio

10 suggested that citizens not only should have the right to choose those who are going to rule their country, but they should be informed adequately in order to vote for the ones who would be the most capable, honorable and enlightened to do so (Bobbio, 1987, p.19).

Through the years, the notion and the concept of the “public sphere” has been established as that space/place where important facts and opinions are being shared and circulated. This way a great amount of knowledge is being gathered and then used to support or discourage political actions. In other words today’s media has been evolved and considered to be the main area where public dialogue could be achieved. From the 18th century, where this evolution of media started to take place, there are some common principles for every media channel in a democratic society in order to achieve better journalistic standards. Here are some of these principles:

• Media must inform citizens about events occurring within the society

• They should provide them with knowledge on the importance of these events

• Media should provide a space for public political discussion, so that the formation of public opinion would become an easier task for every citizen. This includes the ability for different opinions to be expressed and heard. Without the existence of argument the idea of democracy would not make sense.

• The provision of publicity to government and political institutions is the fourth media principle. In other words it is journalism that is democracy’s watchdog, if one can put it that way.

• In democratic societies media react as support channels to the political opinions that need to be heard. Media should be open to the different political parties and sometimes even endorse them during the critical period of elections (McNair, 2003, pp.44-45).

Besides the five principals mentioned above, the democratic role of journalism could be fulfilled with the adoption of the transparency and objectivity principals by the journalistic community. There has already been mention in a previous chapter about the centrality and the importance of transparency and the fact that is of these four principles that compose the core of ethical journalism, as declared by the SPJ code of ethics. The only way transparency could be achieved is when journalists decide to take a clear distance from all the opinions that are shared within a political conversation and also when he/she tries to distinguish and not to confuse or relate the covering of an event with the expression of opinion. On the other hand, there is a great interest in Walter Lipmann’s view on transparency, as expressed back in 1922. Despite its century long existence it is still quite relevant. Lipmann suggested that by the time a newspaper reaches the reader there has already been made a series of choices related to the topics, the position that each topic should take or even the emphasis that has been given to each one. This way, according to Lipmann, there can’t be any transparent criteria. But to what extent do today’s media play the role that has been assigned and attributed to them by the theory of liberal democracy?

It is common knowledge that nowadays media not only aim to transfer important information but also to facilitate communication in general. Many scholars make word for this two-pronged approach of media and the fact that they can be so powerful, if they are used in a proper way and with the right means, they can help modern societies escape conflict, crises and even war. Today’s media are divided into three separate categories according to their different functions. There is market-led media, state-protected media and public-service media. Let’s take a closer look to each category. There are several professionals and analysts who believe that competition is the key to free media, and market-led media definitely ensure competition. When it comes to the market competition reassures that individual consumers are able to make their own choice on what they want to buy and also have a variety of different choices. It also keeps the quality of the products high and their prices low to attract consumers.

Likewise, it is claimed that market-led media liberate individuals from the control of the state by giving them a variety of different choices and opinions to decide from. Once again, it is considered that through competition readers, viewers and listeners can choose, from the many alternatives, which source is more appealing to their interest and get the information they need from there (Keane J., 2007, pp.53-58). On the other hand, objections were raised on whether or not media tend to restrict the freedom of the audiences under the pretext of “quality”. Some media seem to advise people to read reports or watch the news and minimize their need for infotainment or more approachable stories and events. Sometimes it is the other way around. It was that media behavior that motivated Habermas to write about the “Objection of Paternalism”, where he expresses his thoughts on how some media “camouflage a patronizing attitude towards consumers who know perfectly what they want” (Habermas, 2009, pp. 132-133).

Besides market-led media, a second important category is state-protected media. There is not much to stress out in this category since privately controlled media have always been an obstacle for freedom and democracy. The media whose control is taken over the government are often accused for misleading the public with fake information and hoaxes in order to hide the truth from the audience and manipulate their behavior. Worse, in case of a war or a crises government controlled media can help an authoritarian leader maintain his power and mislead the public so that no potential uprising threatens him. Such incidents stress out the great importance of media openness. Freedom of the press and other media allows people to raise their voice and form their own opinion, something that reassures their protection from the government’s potential abuse of power (Choi and James, 2006, p.25, Keane J., 2007, p. 53).

Last but not least there is public service media, which claim to be objective, impartial and mainly focus on the public good. Unfortunately the reality seems to differ. Public service media is often accused on trying to reduce and squeeze people’s choice by simply choosing what is good for them and what is not (Keane J., 2007, pp. 53-63). In other words public service media is giving to the audiences what they think they need instead of what they actually want. Originally, public service media’s goal was to serve the citizens, help them shape an independent and fair opinion as close to the truth as possible. By circulating knowledge and giving an open tribune to each

12 citizen to express his/her opinion, we can easily assume that public service media were initially aiming to serve democracy. In today’s societies, with the hundreds of raising problems and the constant changes, media should learn how to redefine their presence and maintain people’s interest. Overall, communications media in general may need to go through major changes but the core should always be the impartial and objective information of the public. This may probably be the only way to approach a true liberty of the press.

5. The Era of crisis

In this chapter we are going to examine the financial crisis in Greece as part of the European financial crisis and how European leaders decided to treat the issue. What is important is to remember that the crisis is originated back in 2008, when the Wall Street crash hit the United States economy. At the time, Europeans strongly believed that the crisis would not affect Europe and that European banks would be able to avoid possible threats. Unfortunately the reality was proven to be different. Moreover, we are examining the case of Greece which is the country in the European zone that faced the biggest political, economic and social crisis and at the same time was the least protected country by its own political institutions. Currently the situation in Greece is the biggest test the euro has ever faced.

The Eurozone crisis is the unfortunate event of the 2008 global financial crisis that first hit the United States market and is considered by many economists as the most serious financial crisis since the “Great Depression” of the 1930s. As soon as the crisis hit Wall Street, European capitalism was in great risk. While the US markets and the surplus mechanism went down, Europe lost a valuable market to export its products and at the same time European banks were facing a potential disaster. Right after, European Central Bank, European Commission and the members of European Union managed to provide European banks with a great amount of public money in order to bail them out just as American government did with the Wall Street case.

European countries tried to operate the losses that their banks were facing when at the same time the economy within the European zone went under recession. In other words, the attempt to create public money in Europe was not a successful one and followed the disastrous events that Wall Street had to face. In addition, this crisis it is said to have its origins in the bond markets.

Over all, it was the threat and fear of a potential collapse of all the financial transactions together with the constant pressure that International Money Fund (IMF) had put to the European leaders that made their decision inevitable. European leaders eventually decided to proceed to an agreement in order to save the bankrupted countries of the Eurozone. The solution that they agreed in came with the name European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which was a temporary crisis resolution mechanism that provided financial assistance to Ireland, Portugal and Greece (https://www.esm.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2016_02_01_efsf_faq_archived.pdf). In Greece the first symptoms of this crisis appeared in the first months of 2010.

At the early 2000s there was no evidence that Greece would face the unfortunate events of a crisis. The Greek economy developed very fast and could be compared to the economies of other European members. The unemployment rates remained low and stable for years and Greece’s growth rate was higher than any expectation. It is pretty remarkable that when the global financial crisis burst out and hit Europe, Greece was not affected immediately by the results of global recession. This became clear when back in 2008 Greece’s growth rate was in 1,3% compared to the rest of Europe that marked an extremely low 0,4%. Given the circumstances, right before 2007 and 2008 Greece was considered to be as reliable as any other European country but this didn’t last long. In 2009 Greece had to face the consequences of the extremely high sovereign debt which brought Greek economy to the verge of an imminent default in 2010. Last but not least, Greece not only had to face the consequences of the debt but a series of events such as a crisis of political representation, political polarization, instability and of course many social and healthcare problems.

Historically Greece’s sovereign debt has started to rise at around 1980s. Besides the fact that in the 60s and 70s Greece has managed to balance its income and its expenses, in the 80s Greek government deficit has been up to 8,1% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and because of the constant expenses, Greek sovereign debt has been increased to 26% of GDP as well. Moreover, the alarmingly, for the time, numbers kept rising. In 1990s the sovereign debt went up to 71% and in 2009 it reached the remarkable 115,1% of GDP. The Greek economy was at great risk and the investments were officially decreased. The Olympics that took place in Greece in 2004 had only made things worse, because big investment costs have been made for their completion. As a result, Greek government has turned to Europe in order to find a solution to the problem (Varoufakis, Patokos, Tserkezis and Koutsopetros, 2011, pp. 40-42).

After many discussions, EU leaders tried to find a solution to the problem when at the same time Greek government wanted them to forgive some of the debt. Eventually, Germany and its bankers appeared to be the biggest lenders. Meanwhile in Greece, the government of Konstantinos Karamanlis (New Democracy) announced a series of austerity measures with the hope to improve Greece’s comparative advantage in the global market and raise the state income. The measures required Greece to handle in a better way its public finances. In October 2009, Karamanlis announced elections as an opportunity to address the coming debt crisis. The same month, the government of George Papandreou with his Panhellenic Socialist Movement

(PASOK) won the elections (Varoufakis, Patokos, Tserkezis and Koutsopetros, 2011, pp. 42-43, Amadeo, 2019). According to Kovras and Loizides (2014, p. 8) “in Greece, during that time, the blame game and the costly game of outbidding became an election-winning formula for PASOK and New Democracy (ND) at the expense of other issues”. The authors also highlight the fact that due to the bad economics Greece was struggling to deal with the expansion of an extremely heavy state, a party- sponsored syndicalism, a politicized bureaucracy and also an ineffective judicial system and the devaluation of higher education. Overall, it became pretty clear that Greek government could not manage the crisis by itself.

In the beginning of the year 2010, Greek government introduced to the citizens the “Stability and Growth” program, which was first approved by the European Commission on February 2010. The program aimed to reduce the country’s budget deficit by 4% in 2010 and by 3% or less until 2012. In order for this goal to be achieved Greece had to follow a series of severe austerity measures, such as the restriction of recruitment, the reformation of its pension system, the VAT (value-added tax) increase and last but not least to create a new tax system to prevent and handle the tax evasion issues (Varoufakis, Patokos, Tserkezis and Koutsopetros, 2011, p 44). It was common knowledge across Europe that Greece had done some remarkable mistakes. A characteristic example is Greek pension payments, which absorbed at the time 17,5% of the GDP, higher than any other country in Europe. Another example is the tax evasion problem. According to the IMF (International Money Fund) head, Christine Lagarde, Greek people tried to escape tax all the time and the tax evasion was considered to be a “national sport” for Greeks. It has also been found that right before the elections, government officials purposely relaxed tax audits trying to attract more voters and get re-elected (Kovras and Loizides, 2014, pp. 6-7).

Eventually, at the beginning of March 2010 Europe and the International Money Fund provided Greece 240 billion euros in return for austerity measures. This time Greek government had to increase even more the VAT tax and reduce the salaries. Despite the strict measures Greece still was not considered reliable by the rest of Europe and after a series of discussions around the European funding unfortunately the bailout reform package seemed to be the only way out. At the 5th of May 2010 Greece agreed to sign the Memorandum and the Greek government was obliged to report to EU every three months about the progress of the country (Amadeo, 2019).

In the years 2011 to 2014 the European Financial Stability Facility has added another 190 billion euros to the bailout, an although the Greek economy showed some signs of improvement, the country on the inside was suffering from an extent polarization, a crisis of representation and depreciation of democracy. Greek people were blaming both parties for the crisis and eventually the government of PASOK collapsed. A further reason for this collapse was considered to be the privatization of many state-owned businesses (e.g. electricity transmission) that reduced the power of socialist parties and unions. In 2012 Antonis Samaras, who was serving as Greece’s Prime Minister at the time, announced that the citizens were going to access the ballot box once again in May. He also stated that if his party, New Democracy, couldn’t achieve to form a majority government in the first round of elections, he would seek for a second round rather than

15 share power with another party, unconcerned of the huge economic cost. That year, the coalition of radical left, SYRIZA appeared to the Greek parliament. At last, after two rounds of elections and still no majority government, Antonis Samaras and New Democracy agreed to form a coalition government with the center-left PASOK and Democratic Left (DIMAR) (Kovras and Loizides, 2014, pp. 12-14). The fact that the two previously dominant parties lost their electoral influence to the Greek citizens was considered as one of the many reasons that the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn (GD) party managed to make its way to the Greek parliament. In times of economic crisis people tend to turn to extremism in their desperate attempts to find a better solution for their future. In the case of Greece the election of an extreme party would be catastrophic. There will be further explanation on the rise of Golden Dawn in Greece in another chapter.

In January 2015 the coalition of radical left, SYRIZA, won the elections and it was the first time in years that Greece escaped bipolarization and bipartisanship. The Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was in the difficult position to save an already exhausted country from the crisis. On June he announced a controversial referendum on the measures with the hope to ask greater pressure on the lenders and negotiate a further debt relief with Europe. In order for this to happen, Tsipras asked Greek voters to vote for a “no”, and so they did on the 5th of July 2015. The consequences of this referendum that bothered Greek people for months and attracted media’s attention from all over the world, are going to be further examined in a following chapter. Despite the decision of the people and the result of the referendum, the Greek parliament passed new austerity measures in order to receive 86 billion euros from the EU. Right after, the International Money Fund agreed to reduce the Greek debt and gave Greece a further extension to the payout (Amadeo, 2019).

The summer of 2017 had found Greece suffering from the results of the harsh austerity measures. The taxes and the unemployment rates were even higher when at the same time the investments, the pensions and the salaries were lower than ever. At the time, economists believed that Greece’s economy could not stand a chance in recovering without further reforms. Once again on January 2018 the government of SYRIZA agreed on new austerity measures to reassure another 7 billion euros from the EU. Fortunately, this money helped Greek banks reduce debt and also helped open up the energy and pharmacy markets. On the 20th of August 2018, the bailout program was eventually ended and a great relief spread across the country. There are still concerns over the ability of the country to pay back the remaining debt and this is the main reason why financial markets and the IMF are keeping a close eye on Greece and its progress. On the other hand Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, seem to be pretty optimistic. He stated “Greece is once again becoming a normal country, regaining its political and financial independence” (“Is the Greek financial crisis over at last?”, 2018; Amadeo, 2019).

There are many European countries that have been through an economic crisis. Ireland, Portugal and Spain are only some examples of countries that managed to get their way out of the crisis, but Greece’s case was by far the most difficult of all. As mentioned earlier, Greece not only had

16 to deal with its economic debt but also suffered from instability, a lack of political representation, political polarization and last but not least the depreciation of its democratic values. In conclusion, there is a great interest in Yanis Varoufakis opinion, who served as the Greek Minister of Finance from January to July 2015, as expressed in his book “The financial crisis in Greece and Europe in 2011”. He stated that the Greek debt might be in the headlines of all media but the real crisis is in German and French banks. As long as they are more interested in their own gain rather than the common good that demands only one European authority for supervision and capitalization of the banks, the crisis will continue and the era of euro is slowly heading to an end (2011, p. 46).

6. How Journalists attributed to Greek economic crisis

Since we have already examined the era of crisis in Greece and its severe consequences in Greek people, in this chapter we are going to deal with and understand what caused the limitation of trust of the bond investors and determined their perception over Greece. There are many researches that argue that the media contributed to the restraint in the level of confidence by investors through its intensified and yet misdirect coverage of the Greek media. The Greek financial crisis has managed to turn into a credit crisis of the state as several sovereigns have been hit by a loss of confidence of investors. From an economic perspective, the case of Greece raises questions about other non-fundamental reasons that are hidden behind the perception of credit risk. Particularly, there are suspicions that fundamental indicators do not tell the whole story. Especially if we compare the situation in Greece to other European countries (Juko,2010).

On the one hand scholars argue that the crisis was worsened by the hesitant behavior of the European leaders. However, on the other hand, the perception that the way media reported about the events had sharpened the limitation of trust towards Greece’s creditworthiness is constantly increasing. Furthermore, important questions arise through this perception. Why did investors start to assess the credit risk associated with a Greek bond increasingly higher than the credit risk of other Eurozone countries? Also, why did the perception of credit risk remained so low over all these years and that changed only over the recent events? And finally, why did the risk perception changed so dramatically and rapidly after the announcements of details over Greece’s austerity measures and the support package by Europe and the International Money Fund?

Sonja Juko (2010, p. 30) suggests that in financial markets, the opinion of market participants with regards to public debt as well as other asset classes is formed by the information transmitted through various news channels. She also added that being a powerful external source of opinion, the media can be a driver of sovereign credit crisis if its content affects the assessment of investors and consequently their investment decisions. Therefore we can understand that the media play an important role not only in the formation of people’s opinions but can also contribute to a potential turn of the events. Especially when we refer to the results of an economic crisis and its painful impacts on the lives of the people.

Most studies have shown that media organizations can affect not only “what people think” but also “what people think about” (de Vresse, 2001). Most authors believe that media organizations are social institutions that are able to influence public opinions through the messages they choose to transmit each time. On the other hand, some others highlight the importance of the freedom of expression for educational purposes and for the maintenance of democratic participation. Before we proceed on how the media can actually affect the opinion and the decisions of bond investors let’s take a closer look on the views of acclaimed Greek journalists on the controversial relationship of media and the people.

Greek journalist Peklaris Vasilis stated that “ […] People and media have built a strong connection. There are times that media represent and express public opinion, that is at least my opinion” (see Appendix 2). In another interesting conversation with journalist Karamaounas Dimitris he supported that “What is missing from today’s journalistic world is the will to cross check the news or a source before publishing it. This is something really important and has led to the unreliability of the media and as an extension to that, to the mistrust of the political life. Journalism was strongly connected to political parties and political mechanisms, so therefore to the disappointment of the people” (see Appendix 2). What we can easily detect is that the two journalists can both agree that media channels can easily affect and manipulate public opinion and share a strong connection. Vasilis Peklaris supports this connection with the expression of public opinion through the media, whereas Dimitris Karamaounas highlights the incorrect procedures that Greek media follow before the publication of an article or story that could lead to a feeling of mistrust and disappointment for media channels and political life in general.

The transmission of information through the media is crucial for the functioning of financial markets. Sometimes it can affect or guide the decision-making process of the inventors. By selecting information deemed as relevant and by presenting it in a certain way, media coverage can set the agenda for bond market activities. In their turn, market activities may set the policy agenda by forcing governments to react to market movements. According to Juko (2010) the link between media reporting and financial market movements exists and can be measured both in a quantity and in a quality way. The quantity approach suggests that the more frequent a given impulse is, the more effective its impact will be. However, the quality approach is based on the presumption that the use of words that are loaded with affective rather than informative value may actually shape or manipulate people thoughts and opinions.

In the case of Greece, between September 2009 and July 2010 media coverage of events increased dramatically. The number of monthly press reports dealing with public finance and the situation in Greece soared to 1.502 that is, fifteen times higher than the previous years. What is worth mentioning is the fact that at the time, German media organizations devoted great attention to the Greek crisis. Keeping in mind the importance of German investors for the Greek bond market we can understand that German media organizations attempted to constantly provide the investors with information regarding Greece. When it comes to Greek media and their practices during the era of crisis, they decided to depend on international news agencies for sources and footage and are often affected by the latter’s editorial practices. According to Kaitatzi-Whitlock (2014) “a remarkable confusion characterized many mainstream media, regarding what line to follow as events got intense and adversary for the survival of the country, but also about its international image”.

On the other hand, through a quality approach, it is believed that media organizations can shape news content through their selection of information and specific highlights provided in their reports and through their presentation in terms of language and placement. Evidence on the previous notion is the use of the term “Greek crisis” that appeared constantly as a leading label in

19 media reports. If we choose to break it down, the term “crisis” describes a situation of uncertainty, fear and anxiety that threatens important goals and guides people’s opinions. Over the months further labels such as “Greek drama” or “Greek tragedy” appeared and decreased even more the feelings of trust of the bond investors. As the economic crisis evolved the press reports and titles presented the situation in Greece in a more negative way or even filled with cynicism and sarcasm. Even if investors did not believe in a Greek default at first they definitely did now after reading or hearing the news on Greece.

Taken together, the quantitative and qualitative results provide evidence that the media coverage not only contributed to the dynamic of the Greek credit crisis but also worsened the loss of trust in the Greek state by constantly stressing out the emerging risk perception of market participants. Nevertheless, it is not an easy task to detect the impact that the Greek media coverage has had. To that purpose, there is a great interest in the research of Boucas and Iosifidis (2015) who suggest that the major mainstream media organizations in Greece have largely presented government austerity policies favorably, at the expense of pluralism and independent journalism, and despite the increasing hardship suffered by the middle and lower classes. At the more extreme end, major commercial media companies have kept silent about a number of sensitive developments, including the imposition of legislation to cut employee rights and pensions. Overall not to forget that since austerity started Greece has experienced signiﬁcant layoffs in the media sector, while many surviving employees face lower salaries and worse conditions. Journalist Sakisloglou Akis stated on the topic “[…] Over a night businesses closed and journalists were unpaid for months. As a result, journalists could not set the agenda on the quality of their work. Therefore, they had to accept to satisfy the desires of their employer rather than having an opinion on the story they want to work on”.

6. The rising of right-wing elements in Greece

This chapter aims to discuss how right-wing elements arise in Greece and whether or not are tending to threat Greece’s democratic values. What is important is to stress out that besides a small review on the historical background and appearance of the first radical right movements and parties, this chapter’s goal is not to present and discuss the extremist practices of the radical right parties, but to focus on the way these practices are potentially threatening democracy. Since June 2012, the representation of the radical right in the Greek Parliament is made by the extremist party known as Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avgi). In the national elections of 2012 Golden Dawn managed to gain 6.92% of the vote and is considered to be the third most popular party ever since (Roushas, 2014, p.4). Accusations of attacks, racist and xenophobic acts of violence are following Golden Down from its early beginning. What stands as a landmark between these accusations is the murder of Greek singer Pavlos Fussas by a member of the party, which led to the arrest of the leader and some other members of Golden Dawn. Following these events, a series of discourses took place in Greek universities, one of which I attended personally. The Law department of Aristotle University hosted the Professor of Criminal Law, Lambros Margaritis and the Associate Professor of Constitutional Law, Panagiotis Mantzoufas, in an enlightening discourse with the title “Golden Dawn brought to justice. 2015-2019 4 years fighting with the dark”. Some parts of the professors’ view on the topic are going to be embedded in the following paragraphs.

In an attempt to define radical right we should keep in mind that is an extremist political ideology revolving around the myth of a homogenous nation combined with the desperate need for belonging. The common criteria of exclusion among radical-right parties are considered to be ethnicity, culture, religion and gender. Moreover, the most important question among researchers and scholars is whether or not today’s radical right engages itself to historical movements or ideologies, such as fascism and Nazism, with the hope to distinguish a party’s anti-democratic identity and its tendency to acts of violence in order to achieve political objectives (Melzer and Serafin, 2013, pp. 11-12).

Although we are examining the Golden Dawn case, it is important to mention the fact that over the years Greece has seen many right-wing parties evolve and threaten the country’s democracy. National Alignment (Ethniki Parataxis) consisted mainly by the national supporters of the Junda along with people who were disappointed with the practices of Konstantinos Karamanlis, prime minister of the country at the time. Other examples of such parties are “The Progressive Party” (Komma ton Proodeftikon) and of course the “National Political Union” (Ethniki Politiki Enosis – EPEN). Last but not least “The founding of people’s Orthodox Rally” (LAOS), an ethno- populist party that is has created new political opportunities for the entire far right scene. The previous right-wing parties seem to have prepared the political arena for the emergence of Golden Dawn (Melzer and Serafin, 2013, p. 84).

When it comes to Europe, the first radical right movements and parties started to make their way into politics at the 1980s and 1990s. Until 2007, when the great financial crisis hit Greece, there was no evidence that right-wing elements were about to alter Greek reality. The presence of radical right became more intense in 2010 and 2012 when the economic crisis evolved and enfeebled citizens. The crisis proved how deep Greek right-wing extremism actually was rooted. Hidden under the cloak of anti-capitalist, anti-globalization rhetoric, euro-skepticism and opposition to multiculturalism, far-right attitudes, represented by Golden Dawn, positioned /presented proudly themselves into the Greek parliament (Melzer and Serafin, 2013, p. 76). Further important aspects for the rise of right-wing parties are considered to be unemployment and impoverishment. Both of which are among the disastrous results of an economic crisis ( Roushas, 2014, p.6). It is argued that in such times people feel angry and disappointed and tend to think they have nothing left to lose, so they vote for an extreme change in the hope for a better future. Professor Labros Margaritis agreed with the upper opinions and stated that the Greek economic crisis created a culture of violence, which allowed the Golden Dawn flourish.

Golden Dawn, as a political movement, was created back in 1985 by Nikos Mihaloliakos, who is serving as the general secretary of today’s established political party. Right before Golden Dawn came to life, Mihaloliakos was an active member in a similar movement with the name “4th of August” (referring to the Greek dictatorship of 1936 imposed by Ioannis Metaxas). At first the neo-nazist identity of Golden Dawn was obvious. The members of the party were publishing in the party’s magazines several anthems dedicated to Hitler along with racist islamophobic and homophobic articles. The party’s symbol is also one of a particular interest because of its great similarity with the Nazi Germany swastika (Figgou, Milopoulou and Birbili-Karaleka, no date, pp.500-502). According to professor’s Panagiotis Mantzoufas opinion, Golden Dawn is not even a radical right party. He is considering it to be an extremist movement that avoids any kind of collaboration with other political parties and uses political violence as a lawful conduct. Since acts of violence are proven to be basic components in Golden Dawn’s behaviorism, P. Mantzoufas is wondering how such a closed type organization with military elements has anything in common with politics and Democracy.

From the early beginning, in order to gain constituency electorate, Golden Dawn reached for the working class. People unemployed, fired, under paid and younger men in ages 18 to 34 were their target group (Galanis, 2016, p.21). Unfortunately the economic crisis only intensified those practices. Michaloliakos referred to the Europe bailout as the equivalent of “ethnocide” and the “memorandum of death” and therefore tried to persuade Greek people that Golden Dawn is the only anti-establishment force able to defend Greeks. Human rights groups around the world are sounding the alarm (Smith, 2015). Democracy is a tolerant but vulnerable regime and we should protect it from dissidents, stated professor Mantzoufas. He also added that according to the Greek constitutional law and article 29 [Political Parties] “Greek citizens who are eligible to vote can freely establish and participate in political parties, the organization and activities where of

22 must serve the free functioning of the democratic political system” (http://europam.eu/data/mechanisms/FOI/FOI%20Laws/Greece/Greece_Constitution_1975.pdf).

What is remarkable is the fact that since the referendum of 1974, where the Greek military junta abolished the Monarchy from Greece, it is the first time that extreme radical right established a political party that actually threatens Greek current political reality with its potential electoral success. It is important to remember that whether or not Golden Dawn is going to achieve its intentions and promises depends both on the political acts of the other political parties and also on the choices of the citizens (Melzer and Serafin, 2013, p. 97). Both professors stressed out that the political reaction towards Golden Dawn should be absolutely strict and explicit. As a conclusion to this chapter I would like to use the only three words that professor Margaritis chose in order to motivate us not to lose hope and be aware that we are more than capable on forming the political reality we want to live in. “Let’s educate ourselves”.

7. The appreciation of the issue by journalists and academics

In this chapter we are focusing on the opinion of Greek journalists and academics on whether or not we are experiencing a crisis of Democracy, a crisis of political representation, why do they think the right-wing elements in Greece keep rising, how do they feel about the doubts towards the presence of journalism in critical issues etc. I managed to conduct a series of interviews in which I have personally spoken with them. In order to complete the interview process I used the same seven questions to all my interviewees. Both the questionnaire and the exact answers of the interviewees are embedded in chapter 10 (Appendix 1, Appendix 2).

I have chosen to start the interview process with a topic that attracted the attention of both media and civil society at the time the interviews were conducted. That topic was the bomb attack in the offices of the Greek media channel Skai. That attack was clearly a terrorist attack but many people consider it to be an attack towards Democracy and its values. I decided to ask my

23 interviewees if they agree with the notion that today in Greece we transformed a political debate and the right to a different opinion into an accusation.

Sovitsli Fani: “Of course it is an attack towards Democracy and pluralism. Besides the “line” and the identity of a media channel, which the government may disapprove, in any case Democracy should be protected. I personally believe that Democracy and pluralism shouldn’t be silenced, other ways we are leading towards other dark times. I am also in favor of a NO in targeting. We, as a country and as citizens, should make clear that democracy the only way and such acts can only cause bad results. Moreover it is a fact that nowadays in a country such as Greece, which is divided, tired and exhausted we managed to translate the different opinion as an accusation […] First the political parties and then citizens must agree that political opposition and blind polarization are two separate things”.

Peklaris Vasilis: “That is true, sometimes it is more intense and some others more mild. People and media have built a strong connection. There are times that media represent and express public opinion, that is at least my opinion. When it comes to the “accusation”, this is also an issue that is haunting Greece for years. Since the 80s every media used to support a different political party and accuse each other for doing so. During the time of economic crisis this phenomenon has increased again, but is not something unprecedented for our country”.

Kyriakidis Sotiris: “Since the 80s, the political dialogue in Greece was reaching fanatic levels. In other words this situation is not new for Greece. From 1989 to 2019 I couldn’t say that I can detect a huge difference in the way a media channel gets “attacked” from its opponents. The feeling we may have, about the situation being worse now, maybe is because there are more media channels now than they were before. Not only television and newspapers but also online blogs, social media etc. Overall, as far as I’m concerned, the difference is small. It is the feeling, about the media being more targeted, that it is stronger now”.

Nikolaidis Christos: “I consider things as much worse, Greek people because of the economic crisis started not to think in a proper way. The criteria through which people choose right or wrong started to slowly fade out. Such acts are for example voting, choosing representatives, participating in demonstrations etc. At the time, was easy for populism to evolve. Populist politicians ruled for the last 10 years with main representatives the government of S.Y.R.I.Z.A and ANEL. Their main goal was to create enemies. Their political line needed an enemy so that people would have someone to blame. And this enemy should be someone people know for years. Following the same approach we can understand why some media and journalists were demonized by the public. As a result, we had the bomb attack. What is interesting is that when government spreads a message we cannot be sure how this message is going to be communicated to people. Some may think over a message, some may pass and unfortunately, those who have a tendency to extremism may translate this massage the wrong way and end up throw Molotovs and stones and crash with the police forces. Like that we have somehow ended up to this incident”.

From the answers of the interviewees I can understand that the majority of them agree that the attack in the Skai offices is also an attack towards Democracy and democratic values are also in danger. The lack of dialogue is such an example. Furthermore, most of the interviewees highlight the fact that this situation is not new for the Greek political reality and we witness it since the early 1980s.

The second question in our conversations had to do with the crisis of political representation, whether they agree or not that we are experiencing one and if it is linked to a Democratic crisis. The answers I got were very interesting and diverse.

Nikolaidis Christos: “Of course, but I also believe that the lack of political representation is more of a result of the democratic crisis rather than the main reason for its existence. Because we have the economic crisis, people tend to choose with the wrong criteria and choose as their representatives the ones who seem to respond to the urgency of our times”.

Chardas Anastassios: “Yes, the crisis of political representation is connected to the crisis of Democracy that is also connected to the economic crisis. Both in Greece and in Europe we notice a great movement of the electorate, which seems to be so fluid that is impossible to predict its next move”.

Dikeos Constantinos: “The corruption in Greece has definitely affected the Democratic crisis. For many years Greece is experiencing a crisis of political representation, which has many parameters. First there is the nepotism. I don’t quite agree to that notion. In the European elections of 2014 we’ve seen a remarkable change in the Greek political representation. All the 24 representatives were replaced. Secondly, there is the fact that several Greek politicians were virtually bribed. That enhanced the feeling of disappointment towards the political representation. When this feeling continuous to remain, the result is a crisis of the political system especially if this coincides with other reasons (economic crisis, refugee crisis etc.). Last but not least the movement of the electorate is also a clear sign for the crisis of political representation”.

Karamaounas Dimitris: “The crisis of political representation is a result of a continuous propaganda towards the great ideas. Nowadays we don’t have visionary politicians, we have accountant politicians. Unfortunately this has led to the extinction of ideas and people seem to detach from politics and express their disappointment”.

By the previous answers we understand that there are many those who agree that the crisis of political representation and a democratic crisis are actually connected. The arguments they used in order to support the previous notion were mainly the economic crisis and the exhaustion of Greek citizens together with the feeling of disappointment towards Greek politicians, which led the electorate to a constant movement. On the other hand there weren’t few those who disagreed and supported that Greece’s democracy is not under a threat.

Peklaris Vasilis: “First of all, I personally don’t thing that a Democratic crisis exists in the case of Greece. The democratic institutions in our country may not function effectively but they are still functioning. Values such as free will and freedom of speech still exist, so today’s democracy faces some serious problems but I could not use the word crisis”.

Kehagia Dimitra: “I don’t think that we are now facing a democratic crisis and we never had one in Greece. A country is not facing a democratic crisis when two people, like us two, can sit and have a conversation of any kind, or write about anything in social media for example. We tend to use this phrase only because we have never lived in a non-democratic regime/country”.

Kyriakidis Sotiris: “I think there is no such problem as a Democratic crisis in Greece. Since the collapse of the junta party EPEN we can say that we can freely express ourselves. There is public speech, the radios have open telephone lines and especially with social media the public speech has a tremendous power”.

To the interviewees who believed a Democratic crisis exists in Greece I asked them if they would consider it possible to resolve it. Everyone agreed that we, as a country, will be able to get over the Democratic crisis once we get over the economic crisis and attribute to turn the page to a better future.

Nikolaidis Christos: “We are getting over the democratic crisis once we get over the economic crisis. When Greek people start forget about the injustices and the tough times they went through and when Greece starts to see a socioeconomic development, that would be the time when the negative feelings are going to be absorbed and leave space for a more positive and optimistic perspective for the future. Therefore, a stronger political criterion will be formed and is going to heal the wounds of today’s democratic values. Unfortunately, this might last for decades”.

Karamaounas Dimitris: “If we manage to get through the economic crisis things might change for the better”.

Sovitsli Fani: “We can resolve the Democratic crisis only if our country chooses to turn the page over and give priority to the young people, to the unemployed, to those who contribute to the country and its economy, to those who create culture, arts and education. It is time to stop the outdated way of thinking. Greece continues to experience the results of the crisis. The underpaid leave in fear, the unemployed live with the hope for a better tomorrow and they compromise. Overall, the crisis of Democracy can’t be resolved on its own. We all need to attribute because after all a main characteristic of democracy is participation”.

Later on I decided to ask them about a complex issue that exists in almost every European country. The rising of right-wing elements across Europe is a reality that no one can deny, but

26 what is happening in the case of our country. The election of the Golden Dawn in the Greek Parliament is a vote of anger and disappointment or something deeper than that?

Nikolaidis Christos: “Of course it is a more complex issue. The rising of right-wind elements across Europe is treated as a common issue, in my opinion it shouldn’t. The reasons of the rising of radical right in Austria for example, differ from those of the rising of Golden Dawn in Greece. The unfortunate event for us (Greece) is that the reasons that already exist in other European countries, and mainly have to do with migration, combined here with austerity. Austerity had as a result the depreciation of traditional political parties and politicians. Therefore, the already existing factor/consideration (for the rising of radical right) became huge. This applies in the theories about the rising of Golden Dawn. During the previous years, Golden Dawn managed to combine the populism that fits our society because of the economic crisis and the feeling of injustice with nationalism and became part of the already existed European problem”.

Chardas Anastassios: “There is a theory that supports the fact that right-wing elements have always existed in all political parties even before the economic crisis. Both PASOK and New Democracy have included nationalist elements in their political agenda for years. After the 2000 elections when LAOS entered the Greek parliament, those elements became clear enough and of course the economic crisis helped Golden Dawn to reach its current percentage rate. On the other hand, those nationalist elements that existed in the other political parties, even LAOS, haven’t reached the point in which a party will be accused of immigrant deaths. This is something that Golden Dawn is responsible for. Also, if we cross check some statistics will notice that the supporters of Golden Dawn are mainly people who are unemployed and therefore angry and disappointed, so I believe that once again the main reason for the rising of the radical right is the results of the severe economic crisis, especially in the years 2010 to 2013”.

Sakisloglou Akis: “The rising of right wing elements of course is a vote of anger and disappointment but also a vote of ignorance and little knowledge around the issue. This can be considered as a result of the crisis in the educational system and not only in the last 10 years. Those 10 years we are experiencing and economic crisis within the educational system. Since the first bail out billions are cut from the education budgets. Of course, there were problematic areas in education and before economic crisis. For example in today’s schools there is no courses related to political approach. Therefore this feeling of anger in combination to the fact that people don’t have the knowledge to treat and react to such issues, led to the deprecation of democratic values and the rising of right-wing elements in Greece. Last but not least, let’s not exclude that during the era of crisis people lost their certainty and their safety and their regularity. When it comes to the rising of radical right in Greece we should keep in mind that it is not only the poor and excluded who vote in favor of Golden Dawn but also the rich ones. So there is a chance that nothing from the previous is actually responsible for this problem and people see Golden Dawn as an easy way for them to react”.

Kehagia Dimitra: “In a great percentage I consider it to be a vote of anger and disappointment. The voters/supporters of Golden Dawn are people who lack education and choose not to read or get informed. As a result they are easily targeted by the Golden Dawn. In the case of radical right I can detect a democratic crisis but it is in our hands to put it aside”.

Koukoumakas Kostas: “If we consider that the rising of right-wing elements in Greece happened around 2012, when the Golden Dawn entered the Greek Parliament, then yes we could argue that it was the result of a vote of anger and disappointment. During an economic crisis, the worse human instincts awake. After the murdering of Fussas though, in 2013, no one could say that he didn’t knew what Golden Dawn actually was. Golden Dawn was elected twice in 2015 and at the latest polls seems to be the third political party. Things are more complicated than we think they are. Greeks are not racists with foreigners in general. They are racists with poor and weak foreigners. Such behaviors are linked with the lack of education, that as a country we have for many decades, and with the tension to always look for the easiest, most skin deep solution. We are hypocrites. The same people who close down the Evzonon custom office, due to the Prespa Agreement, are those who cross the borders to Gevgeli because they are seeking for cheaper gas and casinos”.

All the interviewees seem to agree that the rising of right wing elements in Greece is a vote of anger and disappointment and can be considered as a result of the economic crisis and the depreciation of the political parties. Some interviewees pointed out that the crisis in our educational system and the unwillingness of the people to read and get informed plays also an important role in the rising of the radical right. Last but not least there was a great interest in the opinion that Journalism is also to blame, which actually came by a journalist.

Repanas Antonis: […] “Also, a vote depends on many things. Everyday life is an example. If you live in an area with many migrants and you are afraid you may become a supporter of the Golden Dawn. If you live in Panorama (area in Thessaloniki where usually live wealthy people) you may have never seen a migrant. Therefore I believe that the rising of right wing elements has to do with the disability of the left parties to clearly explain some things to the people. Knowledge sets you free and allows you to see things clearly and then decide. If you lack information then you will end up in fear and you will make the wrong decision. Unfortunately, people are not always able to get to that information themselves. Journalists must bring the correct information to them, so the journalists are the second to blame for the rising of the radical right”.

Continuing with the case of the Golden Dawn I asked them whether they could consider abstention from the polls and therefore leaving space for the extreme ones, potentially related to the rising of the radical right.

Sakisloglou Akis: “This is again a democratic issue. If for example a person the Sunday of the elections chooses to do something else rather than vote, I would personally consider this worse

28 than if he/she had chosen to vote for the Golden Dawn. We are turning back again at the source of all problems. If he/she does not have the education and understanding of the importance of a single vote and considers abstaining as a mean of opposition, he/she has definitely found the wrong way to react. As a result, those people leave space for the extreme ones but I think the bourgeois parties are benefiting more”.

Kyriakidis Sotiris: “Of course I agree. When someone chooses to stay at home and watch TV, he/she leaves space to the extreme ones. The rising of Golden Dawn is a good example to that notion”.

Dikeos Constantinos: “Due to the great abstention percentage rates we can detect a crisis of the political system. When it comes to the rising of right-wing elements I think it is related to the abstention because those who want to vote for the extreme, they will not miss the chance”.

Sovitsli Fani: “To abstain is not a choice. Democracy is threatened when we leave space to radical right and fascists. Only through participation can someone hope for the better. Every electoral procedure is unique and important. As citizens we should know the importance of voting in the elections. The steady rising of right-wing elements and parties is the main reason why we should take our vote seriously. As Greeks we should think carefully which political party or politician we are going to choose. Let’s start from the upcoming European elections. We should vote to support Democracy, progressive change and punish anything dark and conservative”.

Koukoumakas Kostas: “Yes, they are related. This has also to do with the depreciation of politics in general, as we already mentioned earlier. A politician though, who is complaining about abstention and therefore the rising of the radical right must first consider his/her personal responsibility towards this situation. A politician should have trained the electorate to the political culture. This is missing”.

Nikolaidis Christos: “This is the unfortunate result of abstention. Abstention is the result of depreciation of the politics combined with the belief of the people that their vote isn’t going to make any difference in the political reality and nothing will change. This is a very strong feeling and although Greek people should already know that such thoughts are unfounded, they keep choosing to do so. It is wrong! It is easy enough, when people are angry and populism is spread across the county, some would chose to abstain and some to vote for extremes (either right or left)”.

Once again the interviewees agreed that abstention could leave space for the ones who consider the extreme as the only way out. What is really interesting is that almost everyone stresses out the importance of “political culture”, in other words the importance of participating in the democratic procedures and the lack of education of those who chose not to. Not to exclude the great responsibility that politicians themselves seem to have in order to educate the electorate in a way that abstention would not considered as an option anymore.

Continuing with the potential threats for the democratic values, many media channels presented the Greek referendum and its handling by the government as a democratic crisis. Therefore I have chosen to ask my interviewees how they feel about it.

Nikolaidis Christos: “The way I see things the entire package was problematic. The referendum and the handling of its result by the government weren’t isolated from the situation that existed and still exists in the country. The Greek democracy is under a great threat but is not threatened only because Alexis Tsipras decided to handle the result of referendum the way he did. As far as I am concerned, Democracy is threatened from the populists. This is a notion as old as Democracy itself is. Even Plato and Aristotle, who first talked about Democracy, made clear that it is an extremely vulnerable regime. Democracy is vulnerable because it is possible democratic technics to result into fascist solutions. This happens when Democracy isn’t functioning properly and the citizens chose not to be active participants. That is what I think happened in the case of Greece. Greek people refused to be active participants and this mainly the reason for the existence of the referendum of 2015. In a democratic country a referendum wouldn’t be a solution. Democratic institutions would function effectively and stop the referendum from happening. The fact that we had the referendum under these conditions/ clauses is another wound for democracy along with the handling of the Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras. I would like not to stand only on this incident. Democracy needs its pillars in order to work in an effective way. If there isn’t an independent and strong press, constitutional court and respect of the laws, democracy cannot exist. So the referendum was not the only proof that our democracy is in danger”.

Sakisloglou Akis: “I think of it as a democratic crisis only because people actually wanted this referendum to happen and don’t seem to understand that some decisions need to be made only by our representatives. Not all of us can vote for every issue. The Greek referendum of 2015 was a mistake and it is made more obvious with the case of Great Britain. A democratic crisis not only exists when the decisions are not taken by the many or when these decisions are against public will. When we don’t realize under which procedures we should function, that is a crisis of democracy”.

Koukoumakas Kostas: “I personally disagree with the referendums, which I consider extremely dangerous. In any case, it happened, Greeks voted for NO and the Greek government used it as a negotiation tool. No one was pleased with this compromise and two months later we went to early elections. Laicism and division can be considered as threats to Democracy but this is an expected result in all referendums, which as I already mentioned, consider as dangerous. However laicism and division have already existed in the Greek political reality before the referendum”.

Sovitsli Fani: “The referendum of 2015 was clearly a mistake. From the early beginning, Greek government used the referendum as a mean of negotiation. The thought was that simple: a referendum might help Europe understand that they couldn’t ask that much pressure in a

European county. In the end it didn’t work out. At least some gambled and wished that the hope might this time come from the left and for the first time they gathered together and shouted a great “NO”. This time the mistake was made again by a leader who once spread hope and then, the other day, took it back, and expected from the same people to keep trusting him”.

Kyriakidis Sotiris: “[…] the referendum was made in order for people agree or not in some particular new measures that Europe was tending to force to us. Most Greeks believed it was about choosing to stay or not in Europe. This was wrong. Greek government wanted the vote and support of the people in order to have a stronger word against Europe and be able to negotiate on the new measures. History will show if this was the greatest decision to make or not. If you ask me, I don’t agree with the referendums. Not all of us are able to decide with a single YES or NO about a complex issue”.

Almost everyone seemed to disagree with referendums and highlighted that not every citizen is able to decide about such complex issues. The fact that people themselves cannot realize it is considered to be a crisis of the democratic values. However, there were some interviewees that could not detect a threat for Democracy in the result of the 2015 Greek referendum.

Peklaris Vasilis: “The referendum of 2015 disappointed us, Greeks, in many ways. Any referendum is potentially problematic. It does not have any secondary characteristics. It is only a “yes” or a “no” in a question and each and every one votes according to his interests. In our case most of the people chose believing they were asked something different. Nevertheless, I don’t think the referendum incident as a threat for democracy”.

Kehagia Dimitra: “Maybe yes, but only if he didn’t call for early elections immediately after the referendum. Again, I may not consider the 2015 Greek referendum as a democratic crisis but I cannot exclude the fact that when the plurality of your people ask you to do the “a” and you do the “b”, you have to have a great reason for doing so and you should also explain to them they reason you did so. But, nevertheless I think that there shouldn’t be a referendum for big national issues, like in our case”.

The final question was about the doubts that people express towards the presence of journalism, and especially Investigative Journalism in critical issues. The answers I gathered were really interesting considered the fact that most of my interviewees belong to this category due to their journalist profession.

Peklaris Vasilis: “Investigative Journalism is going through a crisis in Greece. Around the world it is considered to be the greatest form of Journalism but, I have to say, it has also a great cost, it is expensive. Greek media, on the other hand, don’t seem to want Investigative Journalism, because it may cause some serious troubles. If I could add a third reason to the lack of Investigative Journalism in Greece, it might be the closing of the profession. During the times of economic crisis, many journalists lost their job or became underpaid. Therefore, they had to

31 accept to satisfy the desires of their employer rather than having an opinion on the story they want to work on”.

Sakisloglou Akis: “The journalistic world was hit by the economic crisis pretty fast. First there was the decrease in the number of commercials which lead to the decrease of the income and the increase of the expenses. Over a night businesses closed and journalists were unpaid for months. As a result, journalists could not set the agenda on the quality of their work. When a journalist needed the money, he/she couldn’t argue that he/she preferred to do Investigative Journalism. Once again, each one of us has a responsibility for the sources they chose to get their news from”.

Kyriakidis Sotiris: “To begin with, Investigative Journalism is under attack around the world because it costs and nowadays no one wants to pay for information. Therefore, the budget the media have is that little that Investigative Journalism isn’t functioning properly. I cannot blame the journalists because there are no jobs for them. So, yes, people are right. Investigative Journalism is missing. We don’t lack the information part, we lack the research part where the truth can be found behind pretty much everything. The corrupted political system, the politicians, the quality of our lives. Everything…”

Koukoumakas Kostas: “In Greece, serious journalistic attempts weren’t successful. However, due to Investigative Journalism serious Greek cases revealed. An example is the Siemens scandal, the Golden Dawn actions, even the truth about the fire in Mati, at a time when the government made word for serial arsonists. Investigative Journalism costs a lot. Big newspapers around the word have separate investigation departments and spend time and money in research. In Greece, on the other hand, the newspaper “Makelio” sells more papers than “Ethnos”. Proper Journalism is unfortunately a lonely road”.

Sovitsli Fani: “Investigative Journalism bothers. It is in its nature to bother and be unpleasant. In Investigative Journalism someone can find truth and it shouldn’t be controlled. However there is no such thing as impartial and independent Journalism. We are not referring to the spread of information. Investigative reporting is extremely demanding and needs time and cross check of all the available information. Current Investigative Journalism aims to reveal scandals and disturbing behaviors of all those in power. I believe that Greek media should ask some pressure on the editors in Investigative Journalism, and somehow train the audience in this form of Journalism. I recently read that Natalia Antelava, former correspondent in BBC and editor of the website Coda Story, said in one of her discourses on Journalism, “Nowadays the journalist isn’t focusing of the fact, he won’t search for more, he does not try to find the before nor the after of a story”. I totally agree with her. In Greece today, Investigative Journalism does not exist, only free reportage”.

All of my interviewees agreed that Investigative Journalism in our country is under a threat and it isn’t functioning properly. The main reason they gave for that was the economic crisis, which

32 weakened the media channels and made them unable to afford the great cost of an investigation. According to their perception the economic crisis is also responsible for the fact that many journalists lost their jobs or became underpaid, which led them to lower their journalistic standards because of insecurity and fear. Moreover, sometimes it is the journalists themselves that are to blame. When a journalist oversteps the importance of cross checking the sources he/she has chosen, does not focus on the actual fact of an investigation and forgets his/her responsibility to the public good, then Investigative Journalism cannot exist.

8. Concluding remarks

Since the early 1980s, there are serious concerns around the concept of media crisis. At the time, the main reason for these concerns was the evolution of television and the privatization of the media. The theories of a potential end of Journalism and an alternative future of information started to arise. The Internet seems to be the key element to these theories. It distracts an important part of the audience and allows them to become independent users. The users are now active, are able to share opinions with each other and to experience a unique opportunity which transformed their presence in the social and political life of a community. In other words the audience is now a strong and effective player in the ongoing “game” of information (Kaitatzi- Whitlock, 2012, pp. 338-341).

The crisis can be detected in the lack of quality and trust to the media. The constant dismissals of journalists, the closing of both printed and electronic media channels and of course the standardization of the way and the means the journalistic material is now being used, are some of the results of this crisis. Under these conditions Journalism nowadays is underestimated and phrases like “gossip Journalism”, “infotainment”, “desk Journalism” or “copy-paste” are being used to describe it (Kaitatzi-Whitlock, 2012, pp. 341-342).

In the case of Greece the economic crisis and its results have drastically affected the media. For the past many years, the stronger voices remain those of politicians, publishers, industrialists and ship-owners. When they realized the potential of the media they simply tried to control them. Immediately, the media received an audience and they received a vehicle through which they could reach the public. This situation that eventually became a reality for the Greek social and

33 political life is attributed by many to the political immaturity and the low educational level of the Greek audiences (Zaharopoulos and Paraschos, 1993, pp.183-185).

In a previous chapter we highlighted the importance of Journalism both for the audiences and for the maintenance of Democratic values. Journalism and especially Ethical Journalism means taking responsibility of one’s work and explain one’s decisions to the public. A good Journalist should also enlighten the public by providing them only with the truth in order to maintain the foundations of Justice and Democracy. However, since we live in a democratic community, if citizens want to fulfill their obligations into a Democracy they must first make sure that they have an accurate and reliable picture of the world and the latest news. Therefore Journalists have a social responsibility to the society in order to provide people with the right information they need so that they can be active participants to a Democracy.

Overall, for all these times we questioned ourselves on what the role of Journalism within a society eventually is or who should take the blame when Journalism is not functioning properly, we should first make a self-criticism. Of course, we do not forget about the times when journalists themselves seem to forget the four basic principles of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ code of ethics). Seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently and be transparent and accountable. Nowadays, it is becoming more and more obvious that Journalism, due to a series of mistakes, has lost the trust of the audiences and the profession is now underestimated. The only way that Journalism is going to gain back its strong presence within a society is through education. From an early age we should learn the importance of information just as we learned to put our seatbelts when entering a car.

9. Bibliography

Books and Journals

Choi, S. and James, P. (2007) Media Openness, Democracy and Militarized Interstate Disputes, British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 37, No1, Cambridge University Press, pp. 23-46

Forbes, D. (2005) A Watchdog’s Guide to Investigative Reporting, a Simple Introduction to Principles and Practice in Investigative Reporting, Johannesburg: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung

Frost, C. (2016) Journalism Ethics and Regulation, 4th edition, Oxon: Routledge

Fraggou, E. Milopoulou, I. and Birbili-Karaleka, A. (no date) Κατασκευές της Ιδεολογικής ακρότητας και «μειονοτικοποίηση» στην προεκλογική ρητορική του ακροδεξιού κόμματος «Χρυσή Αυγή», Aristotle University

Galanis, G. (2016) Οι καθημερινότητες της πολιτικής, οι πολιτικές της καθημερινότητας: Αντιλήψεις και συμπεριφορές στην Ελλάδα της κρίσης. Το παράδειγμα της Ακροδεξιάς. MA Dissertation, Aristotle University

Habermas, J. (2009) Europe the Faltering Project, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK

Harrell, M. and Bradley, M. (2009) Data Collection Methods, Semi-Structured Interviews and Focus Groups, RAND Corporation

Held, D. (2000) Models of Democracy, 2nd edition, Cambridge, UK

Iggers, J. (1999) Good News Bad News, Journalism Ethics and the Public Interest, Westview Press

Iosifidis, P. and Boucas, D. (2015) Media Policy and Independent Journalism in Greece. Open Society Foundations. City University of London

Kaitatzi-Whitlock, S. (2010) Μορφές και Μέσα Πολιτικής Επικοινωνίας, 1st edition, Thessaloniki: University Studio Press

Kaitatzi-Whitlock, S. (2012) Επικοινωνία: Θεωρία στην Πράξη, Livani

Keane, J. (2007) The Media and Democracy, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK

Kovras, I. and Loizides, N. (2014) The Greek Debt Crisis and Southern Europe: Majoritarian Pitfalls? City University of New York, pp. 1-20

Kurki, M. (2010) Democracy and Conceptual Contestability: Reconsidering Conceptions of Democracy in Democracy Promotion, Wiley on behalf The International Studies Association, pp. 362-386

Leandros, N. (2010) Media Concentration and Systemic Failures in Greece, Panteion University

McNair, B. (2003) Εισαγωγή στην Πολιτική Επικοινωνία, translated by S. Tsourvaka, G. Vagias and C. Koskinas, Katarti

Melzer, R. and Seratin, S. (2013) Right-Wing Extremism in Europe, Country Analysis, Counter- Strategies and Labor-Marker Oriented Exit Strategies, Friedrich Ebert Stiffung, Berlin

OECD (2018), The Role of the Media and Investigative Journalism in Combating Corruption, Available at: www.oecd.org/corruption/The-role-of-media-and-investigative-journalism-in- combatingcorruption.htm

Pianta, M. (2013) Democracy Lost: The financial Crisis in Europe and the role of Civil Society, University of Urbino

Roushas, R. (2014) Understanding the Electoral Breakthrough of Golden Dawn in Greece. A Demand and Supply Perspective, MA Dissertation, University of Oxford

Simou, E. and Koutsogeorgiou, E. (2014) Effects of the Economic Crisis on Health and Healthcare in Greece in the literature from 2009 to 2013: A systematic review, Elesvier, 1 February

Varoufakis, Y. Patokos, T. Tserkezis, L. and Koutsopetros, C. (2011) Η οικονομική κρίση στην Ελλάδα και στην Ευρώπη το 2011, Paratiritirio

Ward, S. (2005) Philosophical Foundations for Global Journalism Ethics, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, pp. 3-21

Zaharopoulos, T. and Paraschos, M. (1993) Mass Media in Greece, Power, Politics and Privatization, Praeger Publishers, Westport

Online Sources

Callimachi, R. (2018) The ISIS Files, The New York Times, 4 April

Callimachi, R. and Slackman, M. (2018) Why we collected the ISIS Internal Documents and What Happens Next, The New York Times, 31 May

Greek Debt Crisis Explained, (no date), The Balance, Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-greece-debt-crisis-3305525 Accessed: 12/05/2019

Is the Greek Financial Crisis Over at Last? Eight years after seeking a bail-out, Greece has left its final programme, (2018) The Economist, Available at: https://www.economist.com/the- economist-explains/2018/08/21/is-the-greek-financial-crisis-over-at-last Accessed: 12/05/2019

Longreads Best of 2018: Investigative Reporting, Longreads. Available at: https://longreads.com/2018/12/14/longreads-best-of-2018-investigative-reporting/ Accessed: 27/06/2019

Preston, P. (2011) The 10 Best Newspaper Scoops in Pictures, The Guardian, 31 July

Perlstein, R. (2019) Watergate Scandal, United States History, Encyclopedia Britannica, Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Watergate-Scandal Accessed: 24/04/2019

Sager, M. (2016) The fabulist who Changed Journalism, Columbia Journalism Review, Available at: https://www.cjr.org/the_feature/the_fabulist_who_changed_journalism.php Accessed: 05/06/2019

Smith, H. (2015) Greek election 2015: Golden Dawn rises on austerity-driven despair, The Guardian, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/16/greek-election-2015- golden-dawn-austerity Accessed: 06/06/2019

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, (no date), Richard Nixon President of United States, Encyclopedia Britannica, Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Nixon, Accessed: 21/04/2019

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What was Watergate? Here are 14 facts that explain everything (2012) the journal.ie, Available at: https://www.thejournal.ie/what-was-watergate-14-facts-richard-nixon-494970-Jun2012/ Accessed: 15/05/2019

Important web-pages

Journalist’s Union of Athens Daily Newspapers: https://www.esiea.gr/arxes-deontologias/

Society of Professional Journalists: https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

Official Website of the European Union: https://europa.eu/european-union/index_en

Hellenic Parliament: https://www.hellenicparliament.gr/

Documentary

Håvard Bustnes, (2018) “The Golden Dawn Girls” (Hatets Vugge), Available at: https://goldendawngirlsdoc.com/

10. Appendixes

1. Questionnaire

1) The bomb attack in Skai offices. Besides being a terrorist attack it is considered to be also an attack towards Democracy itself. Would you agree with the notion that nowadays in Greece, we managed to transform a political debate and the right to have a different opinion into accusation?

2) Do you believe that the crisis of political representation has anything to do with the crisis of Democracy?

3) Do you consider possible to resolve the Democratic crisis which Greece is undergoing?

4) What is your opinion about the rising of right-wing elements in Greece? A vote of anger and disappointment or a more complex issue?

5) It is considered by many that if people chose to abstain from the polls, they leave space for the extreme ones to take action. Therefore, would you consider that abstention and the rising of radical right are potentially related at any point?

6) How do you feel about the 2015 Greek referendum and the handling of its result by the government?

7) There are doubts for the presence of Journalism, especially Investigative Journalism, on critical issues (scandals, corruption, attempts to manipulate public opinion etc.). What is your opinion on the previous statement?

2. The opinion of Greek Journalists and scholars translated in English

Nikolaidis Christos, Journalist:

1. I consider things as much worse, Greek people because of the economic crisis started not to think in a proper way. The criteria through which people choose right or wrong started to slowly fade out. Such acts are for example voting, choosing representatives, participating in demonstrations etc. At the time, was easy for populism to evolve. Populist politicians ruled for the last 10 years with main representatives the government of S.Y.R.I.Z.A and ANEL. Their main goal was to create enemies. Their political line needed an enemy so that people would have someone to blame. And this enemy should be someone people know for years. Following the same approach we can understand why some media and journalists were demonized by the public. As a result, we had the bomb attack. What is interesting is that when government spreads a message we cannot be sure how this message is going to be communicated to people. Some may think over a message, some may pass and unfortunately, those who have a tendency to extremism may translate this massage the wrong way and end up throw Molotovs and stones and crash with the police forces. Like that we have somehow ended up to this incident.

2. Of course, but I also believe that the lack of political representation is more of a result of the democratic crisis rather than the main reason for its existence. Because we have the economic crisis, people tend to choose with the wrong criteria and choose as their representatives the ones who seem to respond to the urgency of our times.

3. We are getting over the democratic crisis once we get over the economic crisis. When Greek people start forget about the injustices and the tough times they went through and when Greece starts to see a socioeconomic development, that would be the time when the negative feelings are going to be absorbed and leave space for a more positive and optimistic perspective for the future. Therefore, a stronger political criterion will be formed and is going to heal the wounds of today’s democratic values. Unfortunately, this might last for decades.

4. Of course it is a more complex issue. The rising of right-wind elements across Europe is treated as a common issue, in my opinion it shouldn’t. The reasons of the rising of radical right in Austria for example, differ from those of the rising of Golden Dawn in Greece. The unfortunate event for us (Greece) is that the reasons that already

40 exist in other European countries, and mainly have to do with migration, combined here with austerity. Austerity had as a result the depreciation of traditional political parties and politicians. Therefore, the already existing factor/consideration (for the rising of radical right) became huge. This applies in the theories about the rising of Golden Dawn. During the previous years, Golden Dawn managed to combine the populism that fits our society because of the economic crisis and the feeling of injustice with nationalism and became part of the already existed European problem.

5. This is the unfortunate result of abstention. Abstention is the result of depreciation of the politics combined with the belief of the people that their vote isn’t going to make any difference in the political reality and nothing will change. This is a very strong feeling and although Greek people should already know that such thoughts are unfounded, they keep choosing to do so. It is wrong! It is easy enough, when people are angry and populism is spread across the county, some would chose to abstain and some to vote for extremes (either right or left).

6. The way I see things the entire package was problematic. The referendum and the handling of its result by the government weren’t isolated from the situation that existed and still exists in the country. The Greek democracy is under a great threat but is not threatened only because Alexis Tsipras decided to handle the result of referendum the way he did. As far as I am concerned, Democracy is threatened from the populists. This is a notion so old as Democracy itself is. Even Plato and Aristotle, who first talked about Democracy, made clear that it is an extremely vulnerable regime. Democracy is vulnerable because it is possible democratic technics to result into fascist solutions. This happens when Democracy isn’t functioning properly and the citizens chose not to be active participants. That is what I think happened in the case of Greece. Greek people refused to be active participants and this mainly the reason for the existence of the referendum of 2015. In a democratic country a referendum wouldn’t be a solution. Democratic institutions would function effectively and stop the referendum from happening. The fact that we had the referendum under these conditions/ clauses is another wound for democracy along with the handling of the Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras. I would like not to stand only on this incident. Democracy needs its pillars in order to work in an effective way. If there isn’t an independent and strong press, constitutional court and respect of the laws, democracy cannot exist. So the referendum was not the only proof that our democracy is in danger.

7. Journalism in Greece has a great interference problem. This is mainly because Journalism is related to politics and many times they have to face the same problems. Journalism itself is affected by the general view that people seem to have lost the

right criteria to choose and evaluate. This situation affects not only society but also Journalism. Nowadays people don’t seem to understand that if they choose to support a media channel they will strengthen it and its intervention will become even bigger, so therefore it might help the society overcome its problems. People just seem to want to please their psychological propensity, by choosing to hear what they want to hear and opinions that they agree with. Up to a point, the same thing happens when people choose their political representatives. Last but not least, let’s keep in mind that Investigative Journalism is a form of Journalism with a significant influence but also a great economic cost that today’s Greek media don’t seem to afford.

Peklaris Vasilis, Journalist:

1. That is true, sometimes it is more intense and some others more mild. People and media have built a strong connection. There are times that media represent and express public opinion, that is at least my opinion. When it comes to the “accusation”, this is also an issue that is haunting Greece for years. Since the 80s every media used to support a different political party and accuse each other for doing so. During the time of economic crisis this phenomenon has increased again, but is not something unprecedented for our country.

2. First of all, I personally don’t thing that a Democratic crisis exists in the case of Greece. The democratic institutions in our country may not function effectively but they are still functioning. Values such as free will and freedom of speech still exist, so today’s democracy faces some serious problems but I could not use the word crisis.

4. Right-wing elements have always had a role in Greek political reality. From times to times radical right has adhered to more conservative parties, such as New Democracy. During the economic crisis, at around 2012-2013 we witnessed the rising of Golden Dawn, main representative of radical right in the Greek parliament. Not to forget that the rising or radical right is a global and also a European phenomenon. The radical right aims to question the traditional political parties. Up to a point, this is what happens in the case of Greece. Unfortunately, in our country things are slightly different. Golden Dawn has extremist, violent and Nazi characteristics along with the accusations for criminal organization. These make the case of Greece differ from other countries such as England for example.

5. It depends. Someone might say that if some of those who chose to abstain actually went to the polls; they might end up voting in favor of the radical right in their attempt to question or depreciate the political system. I am not sure.

6. The referendum of 2015 disappointed us, Greeks, in many ways. Any referendum is potentially problematic. It does not have any secondary characteristics. It is only a “yes” or a “no” in a question and each and every one votes according to his interests. In our case most of the people chose believing they were asked something different. Nevertheless, I don’t think the referendum incident as a threat for democracy.

7. Investigative Journalism is going through a crisis in Greece. Around the world it is considered to be the greatest form of Journalism but, I have to say, it has also a great cost, it is expensive. Greek media, on the other hand, don’t seem to want Investigative Journalism, because it may cause some serious troubles. If I could add a third reason to the lack of Investigative Journalism in Greece, it might be the closing of the profession. During the times of economic crisis, many journalists lost their job or became underpaid. Therefore, they had to accept to satisfy the desires of their employer rather than having an opinion on the story they want to work on.

Karamaounas Dimitris, Journalist:

1. Yes, I agree. Luckily it is not happening to a great extend but it is still happening. The case of Skai is a bit different though because it is accused of being a propaganda media channel. Of course it is an act of violence and this is unacceptable. If someone has a different opinion he/she should go up there and support it, but if he/she chooses to throw rocks and eggs this is not an opinion. The extinction of the dialogue is more than obvious.

2. The crisis of political representation is a result of a continuous propaganda towards the great ideas. Nowadays we don’t have visionary politicians, we have accountant politicians. Unfortunately this has led to the extinction of ideas and people seem to detach from politics and express their disappointment.

3. If we manage to get through the economic crisis things might change for the better. 7. There isn’t only Investigative Journalism that is missing from today’s Journalistic world. It is the will to cross check the news or a source before we publish it. This is something really important and has led to the unreliability of the media and as an extension to that, to the mistrust of the political life. Journalism was strongly connected to political parties and political mechanisms, so therefore to the disappointment of the people.

Sakisloglou Akis, Journalist:

4. The rising of right wing elements of course is a vote of anger and disappointment but also a vote of ignorance and little knowledge around the issue. This can be considered as a result of the crisis in the educational system and not only in the last 10 years. Those 10 years we are experiencing and economic crisis within the educational system. Since the first bail out billions are cut from the education budgets. Of course, there were problematic areas in education and before economic crisis. For example in today’s schools there is no courses related to political approach. Therefore this feeling of anger in combination to the fact that people don’t have the knowledge to treat and react to such issues, led to the deprecation of democratic values and the rising of right-wing elements in Greece. Last but not least, let’s not exclude that during the era of crisis people lost their certainty and their safety and their regularity. When it comes to the rising of radical right in Greece we should keep in mind that it is not only the poor and excluded who vote in favor of Golden Dawn but also the rich ones. So there is a chance that nothing from the previous is actually responsible for this problem and people see Golden Dawn as an easy way for them to react.

5. This is again a democratic issue. If for example a person the Sunday of the elections chooses to do something else rather than vote, I would personally consider this worse than if he/she had chosen to vote for the Golden Dawn. We are turning back again at the source of all problems. If he/she does not have the education and understanding of the importance of a single vote and considers abstaining as a mean of opposition, he/she has definitely found the wrong way to react. As a result, those people leave space for the extreme ones but I think the bourgeois parties are benefiting more.

6. I think of it as a democratic crisis only because people actually wanted this referendum to happen and don’t seem to understand that some decisions need to be made only by our representatives. Not all of us can vote for every issue. The Greek referendum of 2015 was a mistake and it is made more obvious with the case of Great Britain. A democratic crisis not only exists when the decisions are not taken by the many or when these decisions are against public will. When we don’t realize under which procedures we should function, that is a crisis of democracy.

7. The journalistic world was hit by the economic crisis pretty fast. First there was the decrease in the number of commercials which lead to the decrease of the income and the increase of the expenses. Over a night businesses closed and journalists were unpaid for months. As a result, journalists could not set the agenda on the quality of

their work. When a journalist needed the money, he/she couldn’t argue that he/she preferred to do Investigative Journalism. Once again, each one of us has a responsibility for the sources we chose to get our news from.

Kehagia Dimitra, Journalist:

1. I’m not pretty sure. A journalist for example must be really careful on the way he expresses his thoughts. In an ideal world should not take part in the events. They should be more objective in order to be able to inform the public.

2. I don’t think that we are now facing a democratic crisis and we never had one in Greece. A country is not facing a democratic crisis when two people, like us two, can sit and have a conversation of any kind, or write about anything in social media for example. We tend to use this phrase only because we have never lived in a non- democratic regime/country.

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4. In a great percentage I consider it to be a vote of anger and disappointment. The voters/supporters of Golden Dawn are people who lack education and choose not to read or get informed. As a result they are easily targeted by the Golden Dawn. In the case of radical right I can detect a democratic crisis but it is in our hands to put it aside.

5. Yes, I agree. The percentages of those who choose to abstain are extremely high. Some of these people, in my belief, are deeply concerned people and this is the reason why they refuse to vote. Of course, Golden Dawn and the big parties are positively affected by such acts. After all, when the electorate is small there are less people that need to get persuaded.

6. Maybe yes, but only if he didn’t call for early elections immediately after the referendum. Again, I may not consider the 2015 Greek referendum as a democratic crisis but I cannot exclude the fact that when the plurality of your people ask you to do the “a” and you do the “b”, you have to have a great reason for doing so and you should also explain to them they reason you did so. But, nevertheless I think that there shouldn’t be a referendum for big national issues, like in our case.

7. This is a huge conversation. On the one hand I believe that the presence of Journalism is inefficient but we should not forget that the role of the journalists in a country like Greece is very difficult. Not only when it comes to the economic crisis

and its effects in the profession, but also because nowadays people don’t seem interested enough to get informed by the media. Therefore, it is easier to do Investigative Journalism in public service broadcasting, like in most countries. To sum up, I think that Greeks don’t have it in our culture. In my opinion, from the first years at school children should learn the importance of information, the right way to reach that information and how to not confuse the information with the advertisement. The only way that Journalism is going to have a strong presence within our society is when people, form an early age, learn the importance of information just as they learned to put on their seatbelts when entering a car.

Sovitsli Fani, Journalist:

1. Of course it is an attack towards Democracy and pluralism. Besides the “line” and the identity of a media channel, which the government may disapprove, in any case Democracy should be protected. I personally believe that Democracy and pluralism shouldn’t be silenced, other ways we are leading towards other dark times. I am also in favor of a NO in targeting. We, as a country and as citizens, should make clear that democracy the only way and such acts can only cause bad results. Moreover it is a fact that nowadays in a country such as Greece, which is divided, tired and exhausted we managed to translate the different opinion as an accusation. We witnessed it in the referendum of 2015 when the polarization of those who voted for YES and those who voted for NO was huge. First the political parties and then citizens must agree that political opposition and blind polarization are two separate things.

2. I believe that the crisis of Democracy is a global issue and threats constantly many countries around the world. We witness what is happening in France and especially in Great Britain. The political representation couldn’t stay out of the issue and not get affected. When it comes to the political representation in Greece must redefine its objectives and have more clear goals. Democracy may be the most common regime around the world but the politicians don’t seem to treat it the right way. There is still a submission to the leader and not to the ideas. Today, the crisis of Democracy is obvious on a global level and Greece, as a part of this global environment, is also affected. This does not mean that we should lose hope. Things need to change for everyone, especially for the future generations.

3. We can resolve the Democratic crisis only if our country chooses to turn the page over and give priority to the young people, to the unemployed, to those who contribute to the country and its economy, to those who create culture, arts and

46 education. It is time to stop the outdated way of thinking. Greece continues to experience the results of the crisis. The underpaid leave in fear, the unemployed live with the hope for a better tomorrow and they compromise. Overall, the crisis of Democracy can’t be resolved on its own. We all need to attribute because after all a main characteristic of democracy is participation.

4. Today the issue that divides Greek society and political system is Memorandum politics and the politics against it. Keeping that in mind, leftist parties have many chances in strengthen their power and influence. But an anti-memorandum vote can also be in favor of radical left. In Greece, voting in favor of right-wing, nazist elements, like the Golden Dawn, has proven to be an act of anger and disappointment. Unfortunately many politicians and journalists tend to separate Golden Dawn from its voters and finally legitimize their support. It shouldn’t be like that. Protest and anger can be expressed in many ways rather than a vote to radical-right. It is also wrong to believe that those who support the Golden Dawn don’t know what they are doing and therefore we as a society must show some understanding. I strongly believe that they know exactly what they are doing and in case they don’t someone is manipulating them in a dangerous way. They ask them to blindly vote with anger and indignation, believing that some heroes will come to save the nation! I hope without a swastika…

5. To abstain is not a choice. Democracy is threatened when we leave space to radical right and fascists. Only through participation can someone hope for the better. Every electoral procedure is unique and important. As citizens we should know the importance of voting in the elections. The steady rising of right-wing elements and parties is the main reason why we should take our vote seriously. As Greeks we should think carefully which political party or politician we are going to choose. Let’s start from the upcoming European elections. We should vote to support Democracy, progressive change and punish anything dark and conservative.

6. The referendum of 2015 was clearly a mistake. From the early beginning, Greek government used the referendum as a mean of negotiation. The thought was that simple: a referendum might help Europe understand that they couldn’t ask that much pressure in a European county. In the end it didn’t work out. At least some gambled and wished that the hope might this time come from the left and for the first time they gathered together and shouted a great “NO”. This time the mistake was made again by a leader who once spread hope and then, the other day, took it back, and expected from the same people to keep trusting him.

7. Investigative Journalism bothers. It is in its nature to bother and be unpleasant. In Investigative Journalism someone can find truth and it shouldn’t be controlled.

However there is no such thing as impartial and independent Journalism. We are not referring to the spread of information. Investigative reporting is extremely demanding and needs time and cross check of all the available information. Current Investigative Journalism aims to reveal scandals and disturbing behaviors of all those in power. I believe that Greek media should ask some pressure on the editors in Investigative Journalism, and somehow train the audience in this form of Journalism. I recently read that Natalia Antelava, former correspondent in BBC and editor of the website Coda Story, said in one of her discourses on Journalism, “Nowadays the journalist isn’t focusing of the fact, he won’t search for more, he does not try to find the before nor the after of a story”. I totally agree with her. In Greece today, Investigative Journalism does not exist, only free reportage.

Kyriakidis Sotiris, Journalist:

1. Since the 80s, the political dialogue in Greece was reaching fanatic levels. In other words this situation is not new for Greece. From 1989 to 2019 I couldn’t say that I can detect a huge difference in the way a media channel gets “attacked” from its opponents. The feeling we may have, about the situation being worse now, maybe is because there are more media channels now than they were before. Not only television and newspapers but also online blogs, social media etc. Overall, as far as I’m concerned, the difference is small. It is the feeling, about the media being more targeted, that it is stronger now.

2. I think there is no such problem as a Democratic crisis in Greece. Since the collapse of the junta party EPEN we can say that we can freely express ourselves. There is public speech, the radios have open telephone lines and especially with social media the public speech has a tremendous power.

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4. When it comes to the rising of radical right, I would like to think of it as a children’s disease. It was the instant reaction of many people who were searching for a way to express their disappointment, when they realized that the results of the economic crisis and the bailout strategies were about to last many years. This happened across Europe, what is interesting though is the fact that in European countries where an economic crisis does not exist, people are voting in favor of right- wing parties because they want to have a stronger word against capital and business organizations. In Greece, people were just searching for something different to express their anger. Therefore I believe that the Golden Dawn case may increase its electoral rate a bit more in the following elections, but that would be it.

5. Of course I agree. When someone chooses to stay at home and watch TV, he/she leaves space to the extreme ones. The rising of Golden Dawn is a good example to that notion.

6. This is difficult to answer. Back in 2015, people wanted the politicians they have chosen to fight back the harsh measures that Europe has forced to us. At first Greek government had some wins but these didn’t last long. The referendum was made in order for people agree or not in some particular new measures that Europe was tending to force to us. Most Greeks believed it was about choosing to stay or not in Europe. This was wrong. Greek government wanted the vote and support of the people in order to have a stronger word against Europe and be able to negotiate on the new measures. History will show if this was the greatest decision to make or not. If you ask me, I don’t agree with the referendums. Not all of us are able to decide with a single YES or NO about a complex issue. To sum up, I am not able to answer whether or not the decision of the Greek government and the handling of the issue can be considered as a democratic crisis.

7. To begin with, Investigative Journalism is under attack around the world because it costs and nowadays no one wants to pay for information. Therefore, the budget the media have is that little that Investigative Journalism isn’t functioning properly. I cannot blame the journalists because there are no jobs for them. So, yes, people are right. Investigative Journalism is missing. We don’t lack the information part, we lack the research part where the truth can be found behind pretty much everything. The corrupted political system, the politicians, the quality of our lives. Everything…

Chardas Anastassios, Assistant Professor at Democritus University of Thrace:

1. If someone checks the situation that is going on in the comments beneath a Facebook post, he/she will realize that things are polarized in general. There is a notion that in Greece people tend to easily use conflict practices but I think that isn’t happening only in Greece. Here the situation is worse because of the economic crisis and its results such as the corruption of the traditional political institutions, the depreciation of political representation etc. Nevertheless, we must always have someone to blame.

2. Yes, the crisis of political representation is connected to the crisis of Democracy that is also connected to the economic crisis. Both in Greece and in Europe we notice

a great movement of the electorate, which seems to be so fluid that is impossible to predict its next move.

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4. There is a theory that supports the fact that right-wing elements have always existed in all political parties even before the economic crisis. Both PASOK and New Democracy have included nationalist elements in their political agenda for years. After the 2000 elections when LAOS entered the Greek parliament, those elements became clear enough and of course the economic crisis helped Golden Dawn to reach its current percentage rate. On the other hand, those nationalist elements that existed in the other political parties, even LAOS, haven’t reached the point in which a party will be accused of immigrant deaths. This is something that Golden Dawn is responsible for. Also, if we cross check some statistics will notice that the supporters of Golden Dawn are mainly people who are unemployed and therefore angry and disappointed, so I believe that once again the main reason for the rising of the radical right is the results of the severe economic crisis, especially in the years 2010 to 2013.

5. Again, I don’t think that the rising of the radical right is a Greek phenomenon. If we take a look at other countries, in Austria, for example, the political opposition is radical right, in Czech republic and Poland they have radical right government. I think that we are in a transitional period and we are going to get through it.

6. I would consider the referendum of 2015 and its handling by the government as a democratic crisis, but once again I will have to say that it is not a Greek phenomenon. It is clearly a phenomenon that led people to abstain and to a widespread apathy. Nevertheless, the electorate is also to blame. People tend to behave like goldfishes, forget about the past and the fake promises of the politicians, vote and do the same mistakes.

Koukoumakas Kostas, Journalist:

1. I agree with the second part of the question, although i wouldn't link the attack on Democracy with the attack at SKAI. Mass media have always been targeted by terrorist organizations in Greece -newspaper offices and television broadcasters have been numerous times under attack, a newspaper publisher was murdered by a Greek terrorist organization (17 Noemvri) in the past, therefore this is not new. Now, regarding the conversion of the political point of view into an "accusation", indeed in the past ten years, i.e. in the years of the Greek economic recession, tremendous

50 toxicity has been observed, regarding public speech. The problem occurs because of the problematic and low expectations political staff expanding to the mass media and the public speech. Intense political debates had always an important role during the transition time, either they were used in a legitimate or an illegitimate way. However the toxicity in public speech evolved in to a standard future of the economic crisis era. After all, the mass media are losing credibility and influence by the day, they seem like they are increasingly mimicking the social media. Sadly, for the past years the everyday agenda is defined by Facebook. Just to think that seven out of ten Greeks report that they are informed according to the news that are passing through their Facebook timeline. The toxicity in social media is reflected in political debates, almost instantly. It is sad by every means. It is also a breeding ground for encouraging fake news and laicism.

2. They are linked directly. Anyone can observe that various personas and people that are remotely in line with seriousness and reality are elected members of the parliament - regardless of which political party they are part of -. It will suffice to just watch a parliament session or a political talk show. This alone is a problem for the quality of the implemented authority and therefore Democracy. But above the political staff crisis, the whole definition of politics and consequently of Democracy in Greece is depreciated. It is frequently treated as a field of self-promotion or as a closed club of professional politicians and nepotism.

3. Initially, the crisis of Democracy that you describe is a result of many factors. In Greece almost everything is treated with levity and sloppiness. The political and mass media standards, since we are discussing about them, is extremely low. Only a handful of people are committed to their cause and either they remain unknown or they are treated as obsessive and outdated. Try to ask a random group of people which politicians and reporters they know of. The answer will most likely be disappointing. We will only be able to overcome the crisis of Democracy, when we stop taking in to consideration the ones that only produce noise.

4. If we consider that the rising of right-wing elements in Greece happened around 2012, when the Golden Dawn entered the Greek Parliament, then yes we could argue that it was the result of a vote of anger and disappointment. During an economic crisis, the worse human instincts awake. After the murdering of Fussas though, in 2013, no one could say that he didn’t knew what Golden Dawn actually was. Golden Dawn was elected twice in 2015 and at the latest polls seems to be the third political party. Things are more complicated than we think they are. Greeks are not racists with foreigners in general. They are racists with poor and weak foreigners. Such behaviors are linked with the lack of education, that as a country we have for many

decades, and with the tension to always look for the easiest, most skin deep solution. We are hypocrites. The same people who close down the Evzonon custom office, due to the Prespa Agreement, are those who cross the borders to Gevgeli because they are seeking for cheaper gas and casinos.

5. Yes, they are related. This has also to do with the depreciation of politics in general, as we already mentioned earlier. A politician though, who is complaining about abstention and therefore the rising of the radical right must first consider his/her personal responsibility towards this situation. A politician should have trained the electorate to the political culture. This is missing.

6. I personally disagree with the referendums, which I consider extremely dangerous. In any case, it happened, Greeks voted for NO and the Greek government used it as a negotiation tool. No one was pleased with this compromise and two months later we went to early elections. Laicism and division can be considered as threats to Democracy but this is an expected result in all referendums, which as I already mentioned, consider as dangerous. However laicism and division have already existed in the Greek political reality before the referendum.

7. In Greece, serious journalistic attempts weren’t successful. However, due to Investigative Journalism serious Greek cases revealed. An example is the Siemens scandal, the Golden Dawn actions, even the truth about the fire in Mati, at a time when the government made word for serial arsonists. Investigative Journalism costs a lot. Big newspapers around the word have separate investigation departments and spend time and money in research. In Greece, on the other hand, the newspaper “Makelio” sells more papers than “Ethnos”. Proper Journalism is unfortunately a lonely road.

Dikeos Constantinos, Assistant Professor at Democritus University of Thrace:

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2. The corruption in Greece has definitely affected the Democratic crisis. For many years Greece is experiencing a crisis of political representation, which has many parameters. First there is the nepotism. I don’t quite agree to that notion. In the European elections of 2014 we’ve seen a remarkable change in the Greek political

representation. All the 24 representatives were replaced. Secondly, there is the fact that several Greek politicians were virtually bribed. That enhanced the feeling of disappointment towards the political representation. When this feeling continuous to remain, the result is a crisis of the political system especially if this coincides with other reasons (economic crisis, refugee crisis etc.). Last but not least the movement of the electorate is also a clear sign for the crisis of political representation.

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4. The feelings of insecurity and disappointment have as a result the rising of right wing elements and the vote of anger and disappointment. People tend to vote for many reasons […] if we connect this to the economic crisis and immigration we are, allow me to use the word, lucky that the percentage rate of the Golden Dawn is only 8%.

5. Due to the great abstention percentage rates we can detect a crisis of the political system. When it comes to the rising of right-wing elements I think it is related to the abstention because those who want to vote for the extreme, they will not miss the chance.

Repanas Antonis, Journalist:

1. – 2. – 3. – 4. I believe that for the rising of the radical right, we have to blame the leftists, because all those people who now vote for the Golden Dawn used to vote for something else the years before. I don’t think that is the Golden Dawn to blame. They (G.D.) used to say the same things for years. Why somehow now people vote in favor of them? Because the left parties lost the trust of their supporters, that is the answer. Also, a vote depends on many things. Everyday life is an example. If you live in an area with many migrants and you are afraid you may become a supporter of the Golden Dawn. If you live in Panorama (area in Thessaloniki where usually live wealthy people) you may have never seen a migrant. Therefore I believe that the rising of right wing elements has to do with the disability of the left parties to clearly explain some things to the people. Knowledge sets you free and allows you to see things clearly and then decide. If you lack information then you will end up in fear and you will make the wrong decision. Unfortunately, people are not always able to get to that information themselves. Journalists must bring the correct information to them, so the journalists are the second to blame for the rising of the radical right.

5. – 6. - 7. During the era of economic crisis, Journalism completely failed. A sign for the depreciation of Democracy can be considered the reaction of the journalists at the time of the economic crisis. I believe we live in middle ages when it comes to Journalism. Most journalists today are serving political parties and its interests. This wasn’t happening some years ago. This is the main reason why people lost trust to the journalists. The soul of Democracy is in the freedom of expression. We seem to have lost that so we are going through a democratic crisis and I blame the advertisers more than I blame the journalists.