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Alert

Two legal cases highlight on-going intimidation of the press; Rumi scholar acquitted of defamation charges

(GHM/IFEX) - The following is a GHM press release:

Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) appeals to the international community - and especially those organizations defending freedom of expression - to protest to Greek authorities the continuing prosecution of journalists in that country. Two additional cases in early 2006 highlight the intimidation through prosecution used to threaten the right to free expression in Greece. On the other hand, GHM welcomes the acquittal on appeal of a Rumi scholar previously convicted of defamation.

On 16 March 2006, the director, four editors and one reporter of the daily "Apogevmatini" were to go on trial before the Three-Member Misdemeanors Court of Athens for simple and aggravated defamation by the press (Articles 362 and 363 of the Greek Penal Code), punishable with a prison sentence of anywhere from three months to five years' duration, plus the deprivation of one's civil rights.

Director Lambros Smailis, editors Georgios Mantelis, Dimitrios Frangouliakis, Manolis Kottakis, and Yannis Triiris, and reporter Nikos Papadimitriou have all been indicted for a 24 May 2005 article written by the reporter and published by the director and editors.

The passage from the article that was considered defamatory read: "Monsignor Irinaios was accompanied to the Fanar [seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople] by the famous father Dionysis Kalambokas." As the plaintiff, father Kalambokas claims he did not go to the Patriarchate and that the term "famous" is insulting. GHM wishes to point out that the statement about father Kalambokas going to the seat of the Patriarchate could be considered erroneous, but hardly defamatory information, while the term "famous," in the sense of "well-known", can in no way be considered insulting; the prosecutor clearly should have archived the complaint rather than press charges.

The trial was postponed to 26 June 2006, to coincide with a second trial for another defamation charge that journalist Nikos Papadimitriou, alone this time, is facing for a separate article he wrote referring also to father Kalambokas. Papadimitriou was unaware of these charges until he heard about them in court on 16 March.

On 6 February 2006, a Single-Member Misdemeanors First Instance Court of Patras convicted journalist and news editor Constantinos Flamis and cameraman Thanasis Kafetzis of the Patras-based "Super B" television channel to eight months in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros each. Their crime was that, on 11 November 2004, they conducted an interview in the Patras Court House with an Albanian migrant who was being arraigned for allegedly driving drunk in a stolen car.

The conviction was based on Article 8, paragraphs 2 and 3, of Law 3090/2002, which prohibits photographing or filming individuals while arraigned to the courts; any violation is punishable with up to three years in prison and a fine between 20,000 and 200,000 euros. This law was introduced to protect individuals being arraigned from being photographed or filmed against their will.

However, both the Albanian and his lawyer testified in the 6 February trial that they had not merely agreed to but actually sought out the interview, in order to denounce a racially-motivated attack by passers-by that the Albanian had suffered during his arrest on 10 November 2004. In the interview, the Albanian even showed his wounds. While in the court, the Albanian also initiated the filing of a complaint against those who attacked him, the outcome of which is pending.

GHM notes that the first-ever use of the law in this case - combined with the fact that no one else has since been charged with transgressing it, even though it is violated regularly by newspapers and television stations - gives the impression that its application was motivated by the fact that the Albanian was denouncing a racist attack.

This displeased Prosecutor Apostolos Tzamalis who ordered the arrest of the journalists. They were both taken in, and fingerprinted. They subsequently appeared in court on 11 November 2004, which set a hearing for 15 December 2004. At that time, the date the case was postponed to 6 February 2006. The intent of this legal action was to intimidate both the Albanian and the journalists. The journalists' sentence was suspended pending an appeal that both they and the Appeals Prosecutor of Patras, who disagrees with the conviction, have filed.

On a more positive note, on 14 March 2006 Professor Takis Alexiou - academic, writer, artist, founder of the Greek Rumi Committee, and past president of the Panhellenic Historical and Philosophical Society (PANIFE) - was acquitted on appeal by the Three-Member Misdemeanors Appeals Court of Rhodes. He had been sentenced on 1 July 2005 by a Three-Member Misdemeanors First Instance Court to twenty-five months in prison, mainly for allegedly defamatory actions in the summer of 2003. He had been considered the mastermind of a divorce-related conflict, supposedly through his having full control of the consciousness of those involved through his teachings and various other methods, including hypnosis. Both co-defendants of Professor Alexiou, previously convicted for their alleged involvement in the divorce dispute, were also acquitted.