The Agora

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Greek elections: A marathon, not a sprint

Season 4, Ep. 5
Greece is holding general elections on Sunday, May 21. The vote might lack the drama of previous elections, when the country’s fate was on the line amid a devastating economic crisis, but it could still end up being a rather complicated and tense process.The Agora returns to examine the key issues going into this ballot, who the main players are, what the parties are promising, how the vote might turn out and why Greece could need a second election, if not a third as well, to choose a workable government this summer.Hosts Nick Malkoutzis and Phoebe Fronista are joined by Angelos Seriatos, head of political & social research at Greek polling firm ProRata, and MacroPolis co-founder Yiannis Mouzakis and our features editor Georgia Nakou to discuss all these issues.Useful reading Extremely complex yet surprisingly simple - https://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democracy-and-society/extremely-complex-yet-surprisingly-simple-6699/Past austerity haunts Greek election as voters struggle with living costs - https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/past-austerity-haunts-greek-election-voters-struggle-with-living-costs-2023-05-15/Greek PM says country has changed, seeks new mandate to speed up growth - https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greek-pm-says-country-has-changed-seeks-new-mandate-speed-up-growth-2023-05-16/Once Europe’s Headache, Greece Finds Its Feet - https://www.wsj.com/articles/once-europes-headache-greece-finds-its-feet-dbe9b73c
Friday, December 30, 2022

What's the problem with Greece's media?

Season 4, Ep. 3
Recently Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis dismissed concerns about media independence in his country and labelled the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) assessment of Greece as lying in 108th place in the organisation's annual World Press Freedom Index as "crap".In this episode, Nick Malkoutzis and Phoebe Fronista look into why Greece has scored so badly in the RSF ranking and try to find exactly where the problem with Greece's media lies.They speak to Pavol Szalai, the head of EU/Balkans Desk at RSF, about why Greece scores worse than every other EU country when it comes to media freedom.Also, Yannis Palaiologos, a former Brussels correspondent for Kathimerini newspaper, discusses whether the RSF index provides a true reflection of the shortcomings of journalism in Greece.Useful readingRSF World Press Freedom Index: https://rsf.org/en/rsf-s-2022-world-press-freedom-index-new-era-polarisationRSF's factfile on Greece: https://rsf.org/en/country/greeceA game for press freedom in Greece by Stavros Malichudis: https://wearesolomon.com/mag/accountability/a-game-for-press-freedom-in-greece/How Greece became Europe’s worst place for press freedom by Nektaria Stamouli: https://www.politico.eu/article/greece-became-europe-worst-place-press-freedom/A State of Absolute Solitude by Tassos Telloglou: https://www.boell.de/en/2022/12/08/state-absolute-solitudeGreek Photojournalist Nikos Pilos Arrested and Charged: https://fom.coe.int/en/alerte/detail/107638266Greece's triangle of power (2012) by Stephen Grey: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-media-idUSBRE8BG0CF20121217
Friday, November 18, 2022

Greece’s surveillance scandal: Is anybody listening?

Season 4, Ep. 2
Since the summer, a surveillance scandal has been gripping Greece. It emerged that the leader of Greece’s third party, PASOK, was being spied on by the country’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) but that there had also been an attempt to install spyware on his mobile phone.Over the last few weeks, there have been further revelations about the use of wiretapping in Greece. Lists of dozens of alleged targets have been published in the local media, fuelling a clash between the centre-right government and the opposition. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis claims he knows nothing about the illegal phonetapping and that under his watch the Greek state has not bought or deployed the Predator malware that is at the centre of the scandal, which goes to the heart of Greece’s institutions and democracy.Official investigations into the matter have left much to be desired, while much of the mainstream media has played down or ignored the issue. In fact, much of what we know today about illegal phone hacking in Greece is the result of the persistence of a few journalists at small and independent outlets.In this episode of The Agora, we try to explain what’s happened, what it means and what might lie ahead.To help us understand this complex story, we speak to journalist Thanassis Koukakis. He was the first known victim of Predator and spent months trying to find out more about the use of spyware and sharing this information with the public.We also speak to Nikolas Leontopoulos, the co-founder of Reporters United, a collective of investigative journalists that have been probing the surveillance story from its early days along with other media, such as Inside Story and Solomon, before larger outlets started covering developments.Further readingInside Storyhttps://insidestory.gr/tagline/spywareReporters Unitedhttps://www.reportersunited.gr/en/7728/slapps-against-greek-independent-media-solomon-and-reporters-united/https://www.reportersunited.gr/en/7002/i-am-the-journalist-being-watched-by-the-greek-secret-service/Solomonhttps://wearesolomon.com/mag/accountability/solomons-reporter-stavros-malichudis-under-surveillance-for-national-security-reasons/https://wearesolomon.com/mag/accountability/solomon-files-complaint-against-intelligence-agency/European Parliament’s PEGA committeehttps://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/pega/home/highlightshttps://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/pega-findings/product-details/20221114CAN67684
Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Rising sun: How will PASOK's revival affect Greek politics?

Season 3, Ep. 9
Greece’s socialist party, PASOK, was the powerhouse of Greek politics since the early 1980s. However, the debt crisis that emerged from 2009 sucked the life out of the centre-left grouping. Its share of the vote fell from 44 pct that year to roughly a tenth of that in 2015 as PASOK became a toxic political brand.Recently, though, the party has been making something of a comeback. It elected a new leader, MEP Nikos Androulakis, at the end of last year and has seen its poll ratings increase to such an extent that it is being talked about as a potential kingmaker or coalition partner in the next government.In the last few days, party members voted to reinstate the party’s traditional name, PASOK, alongside the Movement for Change (KINAL) moniker it had gone under for the last few years. With national elections due in the next 12 months, The Agora podcast takes a closer look at PASOK’s return to the centre stage and what this means for Greek politics.Phoebe Fronista speaks to Irene Kostaki, a former journalist who is now working as a political advisor on EU affairs to Androulakis to find out more about how revitalised the party is and what plans it has.Nick Malkoutzis speaks to political scientist Elias Dinas, currently the Swiss Chair in Federalism, Democracy and International Governance at the European University Institute in Florence, about the political landscape in Greece, the new cleavages that have formed and how PASOK’s revival fits into the broader picture.
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