Our summer reporter flies, sails, drives and walks across Europe, looking for stories about creativity in journalism. First stop, Greece.
“A good journalist tries to convince his audience of his points of view. He knows which convictions matter and why he gives them a stage. He offers ideals to his readers.” So said the Greek journalist Dimitris Ouzounidis. Now that Greek society is going through changes that leave no Greek cold, everybody’s forced to ask questions and take positions, journalist or not. But is a journalist allowed to take a position as well? A report from Thessaloniki, a warm, medium-sized city in the north of the country.
Frolicking
In Greece politics and media happily frolic with each other out in the open. Editors in chief are members of political parties. Politicians bribe redactions for positive coverage. They’re not rare scandals, but business as usual that doesn’t surprise anyone I talk to anymore at all. Yet the close relations between media and politics aren’t only of an amorous nature. Despite the tendency of media owners and politicians to try and be all buddy-buddy, individual journalists can sometimes be sharp critics of both government and opposition. The largest newspaper of Thessaloniki, Agelioforos, is known to be government minded, but in the international newsroom I meet a fierce anarchist. 
The subjectivity of the Greek media is often politically tinted, but not always politically coloured. A lot of editors support general political visions, not specific political parties. In Greece, a politically engaged journalist who reports on the news from his own perspective on society isn’t an exception. You can find writers and program makers here who truly feel personally connected to the news and you can really see that in their work.
Some of them have strongly developed their own style, which makes them easily recognizable. From that recognizability, a new bond of trust can grow between the media maker and his audience, and a willingness to listen to him. But is it good or dangerous to flexibly interpret the deontological rule of objectivity? Does politically motivated journalism always lead to dubious practices or can it lead to something great just as well?
Regime of the Colonels
Professor Paschalidis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki tells me about the history of the free press. It isn’t very long. Not even 40 years ago, the country was living under a military dictatorship. The Regime of the Colonels was in charge between 1967 and 1973 and brought a resolute end to the freedom of the press, which had only just been beginning to bloom. Censorship was daily business, journalists were arrested and prosecuted.
When democracy was reinstated in 1974, the press answered with an explosion of new media, all in the hands of politics. Every political party started its own newspaper. Journalists communicated the ideas of their party with conviction, controlling public opinion. They enjoyed authority and the respect of the public. On TV, the Greeks of that post dictatorial period could switch channels endlessly between their two public channels, which mostly let the incumbent governments run their shows.
Fan clubs
At the end of the 80’s, the climate changed. The Greeks had gotten their fill of the partisan press. A storm of privatization completely transformed the media landscape. Dozens of new television channels sought the attention of the Greeks. The party newspaper stayed on the doormat, despised and forgotten. Yet through all of those changes, journalists kept their role of political opinion makers. It was only their starting point that changed. No longer controlled by the ideology of a political party, it now became their own personal view on the world. The newfound freedom inspired reporters to broadcast their own convictions and create their own style.
Space for expression and creativity arose and from that a media culture grew, which was rich in diversity. The public appreciated this, as it no longer reeked of the old party press. The personal approach created a bond between a journalist and his ‘followers’. Valued media makers could count on a loyal fan club. It still works like this today. The two professors of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki I spoke to, both claim to be in love with the personal, human approach of one specific journalist, like Stavros Theodorakis. The Greek public obviously doesn’t fall for the objective, detached, BBC-type journalist.
From watchdog to sheepdog
Another reason for a journalist to take a ‘subjective’ turn, is a failing government. A decades-long climate of misgovernment, corruption and indecision created a culture of critical, anti-journalism. The news of the riots in the Greek cities in December 2008 may have come as a shock abroad, but nobody was surprised around here. The dissatisfaction and anger with the failing governments had to come to a climax at some point.
And just like the Greek citizen, the Greek journalist is really sick with the situation, and that renders them subjective. If the government won’t set a policy or even a vision, the media takes that task from it. For a lame duck government leaves behind a hole that needs to be filled. That governmental void has caused critical journalists to dabble in the political game more and more, offering their own ideas as alternatives to their public. Like so, the Greek journalist gradually transformed from a watchdog of democracy, to a sheepdog trying to drive its sheep into the right direction.
Censorship 2010
The question remains if the journalists of the future will continue to walk that same path. The leading journalists of the moment have all already passed the age of 40 or even 50. They’ve all experienced every phase their profession has been through the past decades themselves. The new generation doesn’t have that baggage. They start with an empty sheet of A4 paper. The universities that train them try their best to keep that piece of paper as spotlessly white as possible. Students in media and journalism at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki don’t get any special courses on developing their own vision or writing style, I’ve been told through Facebook.
The university stimulating its students to develop their own political convictions is entirely unthinkable. On the contrary, the training does its best to stop any and all contamination by ideologies of political parties. Despite professor Paschalidis’ resistance, until today one still cannot find a single newspaper in the university library! This positively insane example clearly demonstrates how much the Greek media in 2010 is still viewed as a political instrument, rather than as an independent fourth power.
Public debate
Which way the Greek media will go is hard to predict. Maybe new journalistic models such as the ‘social responsibility model’ and ‘peace journalism’ will have a lot of success here. In these models, the journalist also distances himself from his role as an unbiased and objective observer, instead immersing himself in the world around him, starting from a very close and human perspective. Even if the risk of becoming a spokesman for one narrow vision is lurking, a more responsible and engaged journalist can deliver a much greater contribution to the public debate.
In these times of a reality that is extremely complex and hard to understand, people have a need for interpretation and vision. The journalist that doesn’t suppress his passions and convictions, but utilizes them, can communicate to his audience on a much deeper level. In the best case scenario, it leads to independently thinking citizens, which compare different visions and make their own balance sheets. In the worst case scenario, it leads to brainwashed citizens, no longer able to distinguish opinion from fact.
The subjective reporting in Greece that sometimes predominates seems to have had both consequences. The journalistic climate, and with that public opinion, continuously swings between being stiflingly politically oriented and giving room to a true multitude of diverse visions. That’s the subjective impression I got here, in any case.
Follow Maria Groot through Zomerreporter.nl.
Translation: Steven Jagers