LGBT rights in Greece: one new case of State censorship and discrimination

Posted by @IrateGreek

The Athens Pride denounced on Thursday 16 May the decision by the National Council for Radio & Television to ban all Athens Pride publicity spots until the plenary session of the Council can discuss the appropriateness of their broadcast. The reason for given by the Council is the fact that the spots include a lesbian kiss.

This is the second such incident of censorship and discrimination against the LGBT community on Greek media in recent months. In October 2012, State TV channel NET had chosen to edit a kiss between two men out of a episode of Downton Abbey. After viewers reacted angrily on social media, most importantly on Twitter with the hashtag #puritaNET, the channel's director Kostas Spyropoulos had argued that the scene was cut because of the time of the broadcast and the "suitable for all" rating of the show, whereas late-night re-runs would include the scene - ignoring a 2003 ruling by the Council of State which condemned the Council's decision to censor a gay kiss scene on Mega TV channel.

#rbnews international show - 13 October 2012

In the third #rbnews international show of this season, we discussed Angela Merkel's visit to Greece and the police operation it entailed, Golden Dawn's antics in parliament and in front of the Chytirio theatre (see more here and here) and the publication of the IMF report detailing the shortcomings of austerity policies on the day it was made official that unemployment in Greece is above 25%.
Our guest this week was the editor-in-chief of the English-language version of Kathimerini newspaper, Nikos Konstantaras. You can follow Nikos on Twitter @nkonstan.
The podcast is available after the jump.

"Corpus Christi" censoring attempts and the politics of faith in Greece

By @inflammatory_

 Protester’s jumper against “Corpus Christi” reads
“Orthodoxy or Death” via lifo.gr

Back in May of 1998, Manhattan Theater Club (MTC) in NY cancelled the scheduled production of the three-times Tony Award winner Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi play, prompted by anonymous telephone threats to burn down the prolific theater and kill its staff and the playwright. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights that was already campaigning against the play for blasphemy, disavowed responsibility for the phone-calls.  Those developments swiftly sparked outrage in the artistic community over the religious group's intimidation and MTC's administration for backing off and not standing firm.

Apparently the play was set on schedule again, following talks among NYC Police and MTC's artistic director Lynne Meadow, who was seeking reassurance that security will be adequate. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's office also issued a statement, reading "Although the mayor doesn't agree with the tone of the play, threats of violence in New York City will not be tolerated." During opening day, there were two counter demos outside MTC, one supporting the play and another demanding to get banned. Police officers and journalists were on the spot and the audience had to pass through metal detectors.