Strike sheet / When their very own newspapers have been closed

The start of the trendy adventure of the clicking came about a couple of months earlier than the professional access of the rustic right into a state of disaster with the signing of the primary Memorandum.

And not using a prior indication of the primary primary lockout of the technology, possession introduced suddenly in June 2009 that it used to be shutting down the Unfastened Press. Saying the verdict, Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki had said that there used to be now not any level “to submit a newspaper at the present time”. “We are shutting it down” used to be the word that also echoes within the reminiscence of the shocked employees on the time, with the closure additionally involving the Town 99.5 radio station.

“It even ran a entrance web page, we discovered it able, this is, thanking Gianna Angelopoulou for the 3 years she had the newspaper,” recollects Matina Papachristoudis, who labored on the newspaper on the time and used to be in command of media reporting for seventeen entire years.

The unexpected loss of life counterattack

After the preliminary surprise, the employees counterattacked. “We depended on our intuition” says Matina to AUGI. As a direct reaction, they selected the operational career of the construction. “In different phrases, we stayed within and arranged our personal combat in contrast lock.” Their fight lasted over a month and a part, with day-to-day basic conferences. On the similar time, a committee used to be created to take over the talks with the employer.

It used to be one of the most occasions when the employees have been vindicated. They shaped a complete framework of calls for and made use of the Eu Directive which used to be towards mass redundancies. “We received towards the employer. And our request to republish the newspaper, and to get a lot more cash than the reimbursement they sought after to provide us, with a share from the sale of the 2 media. The paper used to be certainly bought and republished. It’s the newspaper we see these days.”

However, within the new technology of the Unfastened Press, the similar other people have been now not within the workplaces. A number of have been punished for his or her aggressive perspective, comparable to Matina, and particularly as a result of they signed an out-of-court agreement with claims that fear the trade as an entire. “We have been asking, as an example, for a background test to be made for the midiarchs who wish to input the distance.” This additional-judicial topic used to be eaten up through darkness… It used to be neither followed through the industry unions nor controlled to search out its method into the general public eye. “The end result used to be that none of those that signed it have been employed through the Unfastened Press.”

The entire trade on their aspect

The victory used to be no longer entire, nevertheless it used to be one of the most few so essential. Additional contributing to her fulfillment used to be the truth that the trade changed into a punch line. “Right through that point there used to be certainly a super disgrace, there have been gatherings and a strike all over the trade for the Unfastened Press, because it later came about for ERT”. In that duration we can additionally find the primary and handiest to this point march within the Affiliation of Day-to-day Newspaper House owners (EIHEA) on Rigillis Side road.

These days, the workers of AVGI and of radio station 105.5 In Kokkino entire 5 months of mobilization, regardless of all this, Historical past does no longer repeat itself in the case of the recruitment of associates within the sector. Giving a proof, Matina Papachristoudi recollects that there were too many lockouts for the reason that Unfastened Press used to be closed. Subsequently, it ceases to make an impact. As well as, the paintings panorama has modified utterly. “It has not anything to do with that of the 2009-2010 duration. The brand new technology of reporters has realized that it’s “standard” to not receives a commission a lot and to not have rights”.

“The extra silent we have been, the more serious it used to be for us”

A couple of months after Eleftheros Tipos, the headlines have been written for but some other primary newspaper, Apogeumatini. “It used to be like one thing broke over there. It intended that the large newspapers will also be closed, one thing that nobody believed till then” observes Kostas Kantounis, editor of loose reporting and Training reporting at the moment in Apogematini.

The primary indicators of what used to be to return started to appear with some remarkable delays in bills. “It used to be one thing utterly extraordinary for the newspapers of the time,” he tells us. The primary hesitant mobilizations evolved into dynamic moves. The standard fear {that a} more potent response would additional harm the medium used to be disproved once more. “The extra we stored silent, the extra this downfall persevered.”

Regardless of all this, Apogeumatini didn’t get away the multi-year lockout. The employer’s divisive tactic of speaking one by one with each and every worker union accomplished its function through resulting in “parallel dialogues”. Thus, regardless of the multifaceted fight that used to be fought, the combat used to be transferred to the courts, “the place it used to be discovered that the identify of Apogeumatini had already been emptied of belongings, with the outcome that even the publishers themselves grew to become towards the newspaper and requested for compensations. From themselves necessarily…

Newspapers extra proof against censorship

The closure of the newspaper left at the back of a large number of ache, Kostas Kantounis tells us. As he explains, Apogeumatini used to be a center-right paper, however the journalist may just on the similar time care for stories that these days are a lot more tough to search out area in media of the similar identification. Then some, like him, “and just like the little ones, we felt like the store used to be slightly bit ours.”

However past the emotional section, the tragic construction left meteoric other people on the maximum tough level in their skilled adventure and whilst the money owed had already made up the seven salaries. “There have been other people, like our liked Dimitris, who have been just about retirement and may just no longer at that age in finding paintings in different places, to invite for his or her final stamps to be caught.”

So far as newspapers are involved, Kostas believes that even if they lag at the back of in immediacy, they’re extra proof against censorship phenomena and this can be a worth they maintain intact. What newspapers have and nonetheless disturb comes from their very nature. As he issues out, “in newspapers you do not test the tips so simply. Within the newspaper, as soon as it is revealed, you’ll be able to’t alternate a identify, or erase a web page, or alternate some phrases, or take away a reputation.” To the contrary, in terms of internet pages there will also be any intervention. “If it bothers an issue, we will take it down. If a reputation bothers you, we will take it out. We will alternate the rest.”

In… the unemployment fund and the employers

On the similar time, and extra in particular in 2010, Tassos Sarantis, then a journalist for twelve years in clinical and environmental reporting, skilled the cave in of Pegasos Publishing S.A. He labored on the Imerisia newspaper, one of the most crew’s two flagships. “What came about at the moment used to be that the employees in those media, because it additionally came about on the Lambrakis Journalistic Group, suffered 3 necessary wage discounts in a few 12 months and a part within the identify of the media’s survival,” he notes. Salary cuts have been pressured. Somebody who didn’t consent used to be mechanically proven the go out door.

In step with Tasos Sarantis, the employer used to be no longer happy with the standard pressures exerted at the employees via extortionate dilemmas or appeals to the philotimo. He enlisted mechanisms “that have been none instead of part of the employees who have been employers” with a view to implement what he deliberate. He recollects the assemblies being characterised through horrible tensions, whilst proposals for moves “won implausible force”, even violence. “It got here from an overly small a part of the employees who served their bosses and concept they may keep in the ones jobs till the final minute.” The tip, then again, used to be commonplace to all, “since what adopted used to be the lock on those paperwork.”

A treasured merchandise used to be additionally misplaced with the padlocks

Along with what’s regularly identified, for Tasos Sarantis it is very important center of attention on yet another parameter, which is expounded to the legacy this is misplaced when an device is closed. “For nearly all of media retailers that lock down, what occurs is that the fabric they have got had for years at the newsstands disappears.” It’s not one thing to be handled frivolously, as “this subject matter is part of our historical past and this can be a subject matter that may now not be used, both through scholars, researchers or historians of the long run”.

On the similar time, via all this re-opening dialog, different attention-grabbing findings emerge which are price noting. “As an example, any individual who’s these days getting into the sphere as a broadcaster or with some radio, in the event that they input with no need a newspaper, then issues are a lot more tough for his or her construction.”

Additionally, some other discovering is that, regardless of the advance of the Web, newspapers even these days nonetheless produce number one reporting. “It’s no accident that within the night time we will see at the tv stations and concentrate at the radio the stories which were revealed within the newspapers within the morning” concludes Tasos Sarantis.

It used to be revealed within the strike sheet of AUGIS on 24/11