Just a few days ago, Mr George Karatzaferis, the president of the Greek far right, anti-immigrant party LA.O.S (Popular Orthodox Rally) made a suggestion to “remove the anonymity of blogs” in Greece. He supports that the current system, which allows everyone to spread an opinion completely anonymous by creating freely a blogsite (wordpress, blogspot, livejournal etc) is a threat for other politicians as it “promotes slander and unlimited mockery“. More specifically he states that “we should take action in order to protect the people who belong to a certain political society from the anonymous bloggers“. (Those who have studied the recent political history in Greece can clearly understand what he means. Of course the main message is “protect the far right-hate speech”!!!) “Everyone should be allowed to have an opinion but not anonymously” he also said. “Every political voice is challenged today, there is no MP that does not confront challenging. Whoever does not like a politician, can create a mockery website and you cannot track him down because it is anonymous”.
There are a lot of cases where Greek journalists, mainly left wing sympathizers have received death threats from right wing hooligans. I do not despise that anti-authoritarians have caused damages several times to Nationalist’s bookstores and offices, but there are a lot of more severe cases of life threatening and attacks towards political activists who belong to the left and anarchy side by fascists. Just a year ago, a far right skinhead dropped and hand grenade to an autonomous center in Athens but fortunately the bomb did not explode. Last May, another group of neo-nazis set fire to a church in order to kill a group of poor immigrants who have been offered food and bed by the local priest. During the 25 of May military parade, a group of soldiers who belong to the special forces, were singing racists chants in an overcrowded public street while they were marching “we will spill your blood, you pig Albanian”, “Pig Albanian we will make clothes from your skin“. Several violent incidents have been reported in Chania (Crete), vandalizing autonomous centers, knife and arson attacks against immigrants while in Sparta a group of teenagers threw a petrol bomb to a home of a Bangladeshi family.
As we can see there are a lot of serious incidents of right wing extremism in Greece, which unfortunately do not attract the interest of the major established Greek Tv channels. Of course there is a logical reason for that: “Right wing violence” could scare the public as it could bring back memories from the military junta and the Second World War. Thus, the “left wing terrorism” is more approachable and most of the times very attractive for the lovers of TV violence. Of course “left wing violence” sells a lot. Also it is safer for the ruling class’s interests the anarchists and other anti-authoritarians to be used as a scapegoat and be blamed for every violent incident, rather than the “pro law and order” fascists. Consequently, there is no other way to contemn the right wing and para-state violence in Greece, without being exposed and risking your privacy and life apart from the anonymous blogging which Mr Karatzaferis, a military junta sympathizer, wants to control. It should be mentioned also that LA.O.S enjoys one of the highest promotions in the Greek media. Mr Karatzaferis is present in almost every TV show. Despite that in the latest elections the party won only the 5,5% of the total votes, its strong influence on the political decisions of the government (PASOK) is visible. PASOK supposed to be a “socialist” party, but it has adopted a very right wing agenda recently (even more than the New Democracy, the conservatives).
The outcome: it is impossible to express your opinion non anonymously without being harassed or threatened. It would be great if this could happen someday, but under the current situation is not possible. Apart from the extremists, why mocking a politician should an issue? Why expressing my discontent, in an extreme way, towards some politicians (mainly from the two major parties) who have wasted 300.000.000.000 Euro should be a problem? It looks like the what so called “freedom of speech” works only in favor of the conservatives who try to censor every voice that denounces their archaic medieval propaganda and the corrupt political system of the country. Yes, freedom of speech only for the ruling class and the elites… this is what they want and this is what they stand for. See the sad Italian example, where one of the worst presidents the country ever had, Silvio Berlusconi, wants to censor Youtube. Which country is next to embrace the Iranian model? Greece… here we come!
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24/05/2010 @ 15:56
Anonyme I know very well what LA.O.S means (I am Greek as well). Believe it or not, the last 7 years in Greece a huge right wing propaganda has been set up. Of course there are reasons for that: Easy controllable masses. Remember what Kissinger has said “the Greeks are like anarchists. It is hard to control them. The only thing we can do is to destroy the roots their culture and their national identity”. What does this mean? According to the right side, “immigration and national cleansing”. (Easy acceptable propaganda, especially by the old people). However, a further and deeper research to that statement could help you to understand more. What really makes a Greek uncontrollable? “The roots of our civilization” which means democracy, open mind, open heart, passion for freedom, high critical spirit, good hospitality, friendliness, humanism, solidarity to foreigners… those are all some key elements of the Greek civilization that Mr.Kissinger or the new Euroleaders want to destroy using the right wing propaganda and make us a consuming mass, a mini America. In summary, Kissinger wants to destroy our social resistance which is rooted in our cultural background. It is not a racial issue (as the LA.O.S supporters believe) but educational and cultural.
24/05/2010 @ 14:25
LA.O.S. is well-documented for working together with (and supporting) various neo-nazi groups, blogs and websites in Greece, ALL of them posing as “patriotic”. ALMOST ALL of these blogs are also on the payroll of various importers of weaponry and in very close cooperation with the defense-related magazines owned and run by these weapons dealers.
The anonymous readers of these “patriotic” neo-nazi blogs ALWAYS place bounties on people’s heads – and they do it anonymously. Would Karatzaferis (“affectionately” known as “Karatzafuhrer” in Greece) agree to removing the anonymity of his neo-nazi friends?