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19th December, 2001
The Journalists Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers and Radiotelevision,
would like to inform you of the critical situation the journalists involved
in the Greek mass media are facing. Our field is confronted with complex
and crucial problems.
On the one hand, there is a general degeneration of news quality, this
being the responsibility primarily of the mass media employers and their
hard core competition. As a result, the news area is frequently transmuted
into subjugation to intransparent intentions.
Simultaneously, our profession is sorely hit by the breach of its collective
agreements with numerous sackings in the print and radiotelevision media.
These problems are related to the current state of the media business,
a state that is due to the reckless policy of their employers in the previous
years (extensive growth of businesses, ill-spent funds, stock market gambling).
The restructuring and cleansing of the mass media that the media employers
are attempting today, is to the disadvantage of the colleagues in the
media industry, who are called upon to pay for a crisis for which they
hold no responsibility.
The Journalists Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers and Radiotelevision
has decided through strikes and rallies during the past few months, as
well as strikes and rallies of all colleagues in all the mass media, which
shall take place on Thursday, 20.12.2001, to proceed with acts that will
reverse the climate. Acts that will concern the whole subject of news,
and labour problems, focusing on the issue of sackings.
With our motto "THE NEWS ARE NOT A COMMODITY, JOURNALISTS ARE
NOT DISPOSABLE - ACTION NOW!", we wish to pose this two sided
problem to the whole of society, the government, the political parties,
and to the responsible for the news (press) institutions, so it can be
realized that the current situation can no longer be tolerated, and that
each one of us ought to assume his responsibilities. We believe, as noted
in the IFJ motto, that "There is no press freedom, when journalists
work under conditions of corruption, poverty and fear".
Dear colleagues,
For the best results in our struggle, we ask for the support of the IFJ
and its union-members, in whatever form you feel would be helpful.
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