The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the European group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned the use of force by the police against media workers covering protest on Syntagma Square in Athens.
"The public in Greece and around the world have the right to know what is happening as the country is go through a major crisis," said EFJ President Arne König. "It is intolerable that journalists and media workers are prevented to work in public places or even worse, be specifically targeted by police violence."
On Wednesday 5 October, during the general strike in Greece, seven journalists and photojournalists from Greek and foreign media covering the events were violently attacked by Police Special Forces. The EFJ is concerned about this development as this kind of incident was not an isolated case in Greece. Journalist Manolis Kypraios was disabled because of the violence at the hands of Police Special Forces while covering the protest on 15 July 2011 and his case is being heard by a Court today, according to reports.
The EFJ supports the Journalists’ Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers (JUADN) and fully agrees with their statement that “police have to take care that fundamental and constitutional rights of assembly and informing the citizens are duly enforced [and] be in the service of the citizens.”
Together with their Greek affiliates, the EFJ calls Greek authorities and in particular the Minister for Citizen Protection, Mr Christos Papoutsis, to fully investigate these incidents and to bring those responsible for violence against media to justice. According to information given to the JUADN, the Police Special Forces were acting on orders of the minister himself “not to allow reports of abuses against citizens”.
“If this is confirmed, it would be extremely dangerous for press freedom in Greece,” says König. “We would expect the minister himself to take responsibility for these attacks against journalists.”
The EFJ also expresses its sympathies to all the journalists who were injured.
For more information, please contact the EFJ on + 32 2 235 22 00
The EFJ represents more than 260.000 members in over 30 countries