Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Greece:Sliding into chaos




Last month 10,000 police officer were on the streets in order to protect the Greek prime minister who addressed the nation during the opening of the annual Thessaloniki Trade Fair. While Giorgos Papandreou announced yet more austerity measures the riot police battled with demonstrators for hours once more turning a Greek city into a warzone.


Yet despite some of the most intense violence the city city has seen since the December 2008 riots which followed the murder of a 15 year old teenager by police in Athens the Greek media mainly ignored the scenes and instead concentrated on the prime minister's speech. Like the politicians they cover Greek journalists live in their own alternative universe where the major scandals go uncovered yet government press statments are repeated ad nauseum.

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