The Vaxevanis trial: no lawyers, no witnesses? Apparently no problem.

Posted by @IrateGreek

As we posted earlier today, the re-trial of Kostas Vaxevanis for publishing, back in October 2012, a list of 2000+ names of Greek bank account holders in Switzerland, known as the Lagarde list, was due to take place this morning in the Athens courthouse. It took the court a full hour and a half, from 9:00 until 10:30am, and three private conversations in recess, to determine that, in the absence of two of three defense lawyers and of three of four defense witnesses, the trial should be postponed.

Statements by Erdoğan from today (03/06/2013) morning

From the tweets of Kadir Murat Yildiz

In a press conference this morning, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the occasion of his departure from Morocco, spoke about the traditional relations of his country with Morocco, the important trade agreements and the financial cooperation between Turkey and the north African states. He also said that he has been a supporter of the Arab spring and therefore he supports the development prospects of Tunisia.

Answering to a journalist's question, about what message he has received from the recent riots and if his administration intends to take any initiatives,
Erdoğan's answer was: "what message have you received?". He added that it is not about Gezi park, but the fact that his political opponents cannot hurt him politically using democratic means through elections, and they choose the way of riots.

The Turkish Prime Minister also said that the riots are instigated from within Turkey and abroad. To the question "who are the instigators", he answered that the issue is being investigated by the Turkish intelligence agencies and that the government will react based on the result of this investigation.

It is notable that Erdoğan was aggressive and sarcastic to the citizens that take part in the uprising, while at some point he mentioned that "160 from my police officers were injured, because they were peaceful". In response to a journalists remark about the Arab Spring, he said that in Turkey there is spring as well and "we will not let them transform it into winter".

Erdoğan was sarcastic even to the journalists. When one of them asked if he would use a "softer tone", the answer was "What softer tone? Teach it to me". He also attacked a journalist from Reuters, saying that he (the journalist) is giving false information to the international press agency and preaching to him about the Turkish Constitution. He finally mentioned that he "is keeping millions of his supporters in their homes", a statement that he is not making for the first time.

Alex the lazy Greek

By @galaxyarchis, translated by @IrateGreek

The Omikron Project team, who seek to break, through video spots and ads, the various European stereotypes about Greeks and Greece in the context of the financial crisis, completed their second cartoon. The video's protagonist is Alex, a Greek worker whom many international media describe as lazy, and who therefore is perceived as deserving the punishment of austerity imposed upon him by the European Union.

You can activate subtitles in multiple languages in the video above. 

The #MAT1236 photo exhibition in Finland (videos)

Posted by @IrateGreek

The photo exhibition #MAT1236 about the brutality of the Greek police opened on 02 May 2013 in Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. Greek activist Anna Gartagani sent to us videos from the inauguration and the panel discussion that took place after the opening. You can watch them after the jump.

The #MAT1236 photo exhibition in Finland

Source

By @Polyfimos, translated from Greek by @IrateGreek


Angela Merkel's visit to Athens in October 2012 went down in social media history under the code name #ΜΑΤ1236, after the registration number of the riot policeman [MAT in Greek] who, during clashes with protesters, used a young woman as a human shield. This action by the policeman, whose identity details are unknown, was the inspiration for an original, timely photo exhibition in the Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.

Greece: The big sell-off - Debunking Alexia Kefalas's report for French public TV

This post, co-authored by Okeanos (@Okeanews) and Theodora Oikonomides (@IrateGreek) was first published in French on Okeanews.

The weekly documentary magazine Envoyé Spécial broadcast on French public TV channel France 2 shortly before Christmas 2012 a report about privatizations in Greece. Titled "Greece: the big sell-off" ("Grèce: la grande braderie"), the report, devised and produced by Alexia Kefalas (@alexisKefalas) and Michel Tardy, is riddled with inaccuracies and oversights, and, what is more, one of the interviewees denies the role attributed to him. The result is a picture of privatizations in Greece which is entirely distorted. Here's an analysis of what journalists should not do.

At the time of writing, the report was available on YouTube in French. If you choose a video of the entire Envoyé Spécial show, it starts at approx. 33'.

Interview with Laurie Penny and Yiannis Baboulias

On 15/10/2012, @IrateGreek and @tsimitakis interviewed Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) and Yiannis Baboulias (@YiannisBab). We talked about Greece, the rise of neo-nazism, comparisons with other fascist movements in Europe and how the media should manage such movements. You can listen to the podcast after the jump.

Τsipras gets the international treatment: non-Greek media coverage of the leader of SYRIZA focuses on the man, not the message

By @zoemavroudi

It has been only two weeks since Alexis Tsipras was thrust into the international political limelight after leading the Coalition of the Radical Left-SYRIZA party to a surprising second place in Greece’s May 6 election and major media outlets in Europe and the United States have been hosting a slew of articles about him, in an attempt to piece together a coherent narrative.

This post is also available in French on Okeanews. 

Greece: the morning after PSI in international media

By @IrateGreek

Wall Street Journal
Greece defaults, and Tries to Move On, by Charles Forelle

"The biggest immediate benefit to Greece is that its problems are put off until another day. It has a €14.5 billion bond due March 20, and it doesn't have money to pay it. That bond in its entirety has been forced into the swap, and Greece's first principal payment on it will now be in 2023."

Guardian
Greek deal is not the end of the story by any means, by Larry Elliot
"This, then, was a triumph for Greece but only in the way that Dunkirk was for Britain."