La Grèce, berceau culturel de la civilisation occidentale, pays qui inventa l’admirable notion de "démocratie", vit aujourd’hui - avec l’illégitime et brutale fermeture de sa radio-télévision publique (ERT) - une des périodes les plus sombres de son histoire moderne et contemporaine. Lettre ouverte Monsieur le Premier Ministre du Gouvernement Grec, Antonis Samaras, Les intellectuels et artistes d’Europe vou ...

In his book, 'Propaganda', published in 1928, Edward Bernays wrote: "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country." The American nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays invented the term ...

On 16 June, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras wrote a long opinion piece for the Sunday edition of newspaper Kathimerini (which, incidentally, was published despite the fact that all media were officially on strike) to justify his decision to shut down Greece's public broadcaster ERT. Former ERT news director Giorgos Kogiannis wrote in turn an answer to the Prime Minister on the newly established ERT workers' ...

Now in Greece laws are canceled without the approval of the parliament. Evading the parliament, is evading democracy. This has led to the shutting of the Greek national broadcaster. Solidarity is the only way to reverse this. ...

Paul Mason Economics editor, for bbc.co.uk The language and the time zone changes but, from Turkey and Bulgaria to Brazil, the symbolism of protest is increasingly the same. The Guy Fawkes masks, the erection of tent camps, the gas masks and helmets improvised in response to the use of tear gas as a means of collective punishment. The handwritten signs - scrawled in defiance of the state's power and the uni ...

The unprecedented decision by the government to shut down ERT – the Greek Public Broadcaster has been a heavy blow for all. Both me and my colleagues, journalists and technicians, we ran immediately at the ERT Broadcasting Center. Since the beginning, every day we are recording what we see. We just edited quickly nine minutes to not erase from our memory what happened the first day. This is our way to react ...

The grassroots organization of the Communist Party of Greece in the Netherlands call the immigrants and local workers in mobilization on Sunday, June 16 at 15:00 in Dam square in Amsterdam, against the unacceptable government's decision to shutdown the Greek Public Broadcasting (ERT). The shutdown will result to 2,700 job cuts and moreover it will deliver the public property, paid by the Greek people, to th ...

Translated from Netherlands. ‘Πρωθυπουργέ Ρούτε, καταδίκασε τη σίγαση της Ελληνικής κρατικής ραδιοτηλεόρασης’ Το συνδικάτο FNV KIEM, μαζί με άλλα συνδικάτα σε όλο τον κόσμο, καταδικάζει τη ξαφνική κατάργηση του δημόσιου Ελληνικού ραδιοτηλεοπτικού φορέα, ΕΡΤ. Η Ελληνική κυβέρνηση αποφάσισε να κλείσει το τηλεοπτικό κανάλι με την παρούσα μορφή, με τη δικαιολογία ότι ‘κατασπαταλά το δημόσιο χρήμα’. Το σήμα των ...

You can find the recent report from IMF on Greece here: Link [pdf] Some read the recent IMF report on Greece as a mea culpa for its mistakes in the Greek bailout. We see it differently. You can say sorry for an unintended mistake, a miscalculation. The case we have here is not an accident. IMF’s inhumane and otherwise ineffective policies are not, as IMF asserts, the result of a methodological error, simply ...

Demonstrators claim victory following weekend of violent clashes with police, but Erdogan warns of retaliatory measures. Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was facing the biggest challenge to his 10-year rule this weekend as parts of Istanbul turned into a war zone. Violent clashes took place between riot police and tens of thousands of demonstrators outraged at the heavy-handed response of auth ...