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8th February 2002

The speech of Aristidis Manolakos, President of JUADN,
during the journalists' assebly in Athens within the frame of our 24 hours strike

Colleagues,

Today Thursday February 7th, the journalists of all the mass media are on strike. They are striking for the quality of information, for the integrity and dignity of the journalist. We are part of a European wide struggle for the quality of information and we have messages of support and solidarity from the International Federation of Journalists and the journalists unions of European countries.

Employers pretend that they do not comprehend the reason for today's strike because they do not wish to acknowledge what we have said in the past and are repeating today. The garbage of information is produced by political and economical corruption factors. This intolerable situation affects directly the work relations of journalists and this cannot continue. The information of the people is a public commodity and should be finally allowed to be put above the profit of employers and political intentions.

We strike today for these issues and shall climax our efforts. We have a duty and responsibility toward the Greek community to do this. We must speak the truth about the situation in information, about the real situation of the work conditions faced by journalists.

We are aware that this will be a long battle and call upon all Unions of those employed in the mass media, to take a stand in this struggle, which is also theirs and directly concerns them too.

Colleagues,

Some, in these past few days, have accused the J.U.A.D.N for not taking measures, for belated interventions. Colleagues, let's be clear upon this. We claim our share of responsibility for the crisis in the mass media. However, it is a grave mistake to believe that we are complacently watching the developments without any intervention.

Long before have we have set upon the table the issue of information and today we are entering this battle with concrete proposals.

The members of the J.U.A.D.N, with a remarkable majority of 85%, have voted their own code of principles and ethics in 1998. We are the ones who have been pressing for years the employers of the mass media, for a common code of ethics and they have been breaching their promises and stalling. During this past time, with public interventions, such as the one in Edessa, with newspaper articles, we have repeatedly posed the issue of the mass media employers status quo, their viability, we asked for transparency in funding, we denounced TV garbage. The movements of December resulted even in the intervention of the President of Democracy for the atrocities shown on TV. And the outburst of the President of Parliament yesterday, was by no means accidental, when he spoke of "vulgarities in politics and journalism".

Colleagues,

Last December during the strike of all workers employed in the mass media, we stated from this podium: "We shall protect the values that the new order in information seeks to smother. We shall protect the quality, the integrity, and the objectivity of information. We shall not be accomplices to this downfall."

This downfall, colleagues, has more than one side to it, which is bound together. The J.U.A.D.N. will respond to all these problems with concrete proposals. For this purpose we have formed a committee, which will directly process and present our scope about information in an open, public dialogue.

The first and most fiery problem of all is that of the employers' status quo.

Colleagues, the present situation, in which businesses in the field of information are, cannot continue. Newspapers and magazines, radios, televisions are popping up from nowhere, under dubious circumstances as to their financial funding, their shareholders standing, as to their viability. Up to date the regulations for the basic shareholder, which should have been made, based also upon the Constitution, have been continuously postponed. Other regulations regarding crucial issues such as lawsuits for the newspapers, balance sheets, or other issues concerning the entire mass media industry such as advertising, have been also indefinitely postponed. Not long ago the Press Minister claimed that the laws of the market would resolve the problems of the information. He now proclaims that he intends to promote regulations for the employers' status quo and the principles of conduct and ethics. As to the first claim and what sort of regulations he shall make, we hold our reservations. As to the matter of conduct and ethics, we are adamant. It is not the government's responsibility to propose a code of ethics.

The issue of ethics is the next problem that sores us. It concerns the employers and us, the journalists. At this point, let's clarify certain facts from the beginning.

Principles and regulations have been conquered through hard struggles. Information is a public commodity. The products of information concern the entire community, not only the employers of the mass media who sell them as a commodity and make profit. We ask, however, how is it feasible for a code of ethics to function unless the issue of the employers' status quo is clarified. Is it by chance that for the past 5 years the employers have been postponing to sign an agreement for a common code of ethics, as suggested prematurely by the JUADN.

Isn't is quite obvious that with such tactics, i.e. insufficient measures regarding the employers status quo, and without their commitment to a code of ethics, any employer is free to do as he pleases in order to increase his newspaper circulation, his radio audience, television viewers? We do not mean just competition, but uncontrollable situations all in the name of competition.

Under these circumstances a new journalist is called upon to work in and this is a third issue that needs definite resolving. Who is interested in educating and training a young journalist? Who can tell us, what purpose do all these public and private journalism schools serve? What do the Ministry of Education, the self-governed university authorities, the cultural authorities, and anyone else responsible for that matter, have to say about all this.

Colleagues,

In this unregulated environment governing information flow at present, we have accomplices and victims. We know who the accomplices are and journalists refuse to be victims. We have every reason to demand that the chaos with the news be regulated, since it directly effects our working conditions. Laws are perpetrated and laws are not practised, still no government official reacts to that.
It is the government's responsibility when laws concerning journalist work such as the one stipulating 5 days work per week, are obviously violated. It is the government's responsibility stipulating the achievement European Union convergence, when all E.U. regulations on trade union discussion and business rearranging practices in our country, are ignored.
We have made clear in every possible way, that the majority of journalists work under unacceptable conditions -quite hard and with low pay, usually not matching half the pay of our European colleagues and have no protection against job lay-offs. The majority of journalists bare no relation to the million-high private contracts signed by the famous stars of the news. The majority of journalists bare no relation to the spin some of those famous resolve, to boost audience viewing rates in the name of competition or any other interest which I am not aware of. The J.U.A.D.N. has made clear since yesterday that we do not count among our members those who breach our Union's code of ethics and we demand that they return their Union cards immediately. We hope that they will do so for the sake of decency.
Let us go on with our Unions' self-purification from all those who bare no relation to journalists' profession. The ones, who are presently owners, shareholders, and contractors to production agencies exploiting the work of journalists, can not be members of the Union.
It is of crucial importance to the future of the Union to define boundaries of our profession and to this extend will serve us right the amendment of our constitution to meet contemporary terms prevailing in the flow of Information and the profession. It is the height of our efforts, so that our union will competently face the great challenges of the times. A union open to those who actually practice journalism, a union fighting struggles effectively. A union that will guarantee membership and collective action.

Thus, being quite certain of our real strength, we will proceed forward to the following steps. We have proposed public discussion and made clear who in our view must contribute on every occasion to this discussion. The government bares responsibility for regulating media acquisition and ownership as well as journalist education. The owners of the media, the National Broadcasting Council, the social and intellectual institutions bare responsibility for the practice of ethics.
Colleagues,
The J.U.A.D.N. will proceed to the discussion baring full responsibility on all of the issues involved. Let everybody be assured that: There can not be a new era for Information unless we have the journalists' concrete points of view and that of the unions representing them. No one will be able to guarantee Information quality unless the actual leading contributors bare responsibility for the problems occurring today. If anyone dares to undermine the possibility of such a discussion, he is the one to bare full responsibility to the Greek people.
Colleagues,
In this struggle, we do not stand-alone. The J.U.A.D.N. with the other trade unions representing all media workers along with the public being disgusted with the 'garbage' we consume as News, will contribute in all effort to the creation of a wide social front to enter the struggle for Information. A social front comprised of workers and intellectuals, to exert control over the centres and of-centres, aiming against freedom of expression, aiming against freedom of the Press and speech diversity therefore resulting in restraining news and falsifying information. A social front of journalists, workers and intellectuals.
A front to support our struggle against problems in our work. To meet collective agreements. To draft contemporary employment agreements guaranteeing decent standards of living so that journalists' will not need a second or even third job to meet financial needs. We struggle for convergence of journalist wages in Europe. We struggle for regulation of free-lance working journalists and authors' rights protection. We struggle for regulation of pensions and pensioners' benefits. We demand that job lay-offs, starting to pick-up lately in working places, be stopped.

We are responsible for taking part in negotiations over collective agreements with our employers, however if necessary we are ready to clash with anyone who chooses to ignore our just cause.

Colleagues,

We will escalate action of our struggle and express our will to meet the needs of all media workers. Still, we have to cast aside all constraining individual union reasons. We all have to come in terms with our responsibilities and make sense of our individual pace. How can we wonder alone excluding ourselves from the struggle? Colleagues, what is unity after all? Is it summit meeting or a process of struggle, rather? Unity has never been an easy road. We are well aware that it is a difficult process, a long-distance road of endurance. Still, if we want to be a pray to employers, who make sure we are divided and undermine all our efforts for unity; then we have to decide to walk the road. The road, that leads to the Press Syndicate.

Colleagues,

Next week is action week. Action week against all companies who fail to meet collective agreements, in a provocative attitude towards the Union. A week to organise the working place. A week to proceed negotiations with co-operating media unions and will prepare for the struggle with our employers.

Let us all join the struggle to

• Sign Collective Agreements NOW
• Stop job redundancies
• Seek Rules for the News Chaos

Aristides Manolakos
President of the J.U.A.D.N.
Athens, 7th February 2002