Greece: updates on the censorship push against free media

While absolutely nothing is done to stop the police collaboration with the Nazi pogroms or to banish the Nazi party Golden Dawn, which attacks immigrants, Roma, Jews, gays and leftists equally, the Greek coalition government moved yesterday to muzzle several key free information resorts: Indymedia Athens and two free radio stations. 

It is important to underline that this phylo-Nazi government of Samaras is supported and sustained by two smaller allegedly "socialist" parties: the shameless PASOK and the petty opportunist DIMAR. Would elections be held today it is very likely that the real left would win, so we can clearly talk of an illegitimate government: legal but without real democratic support. 

It is also important to remember what happened in the 1920s and 30s, when the conservative parties of all Europe effectively supported the rise of fascism, often becoming themselves into the new fascist backbone, while the Bersnteinian "social-democrats" played most shameful roles of facilitators, when not direct accomplices. 

They continued doing it after WWII, supporting the fascist-terrorist regimes of Salazar and Franco in Iberia and establishing new ones in Turkey and Greece, and of course elsewhere around the World. 

No doubt they hope that these extremely dangerous Nazi movements they are so dearly supporting today will be their brutal backup if the farce of bourgeoise democracy fails to impede the rise of true socialists to power, first of all in Greece. 

Updates on the closure of free media in Greece (from From the Greek Streets):

1. General update (source: FTGS):

Athens Indymedia, 98FM and Radio Entasi repressed by the greek government: updates

On April 11th, 2013 the university authorities of the Athens Polytechnic (NTUA) cut off the electricity connection to the servers hosting Athens Indymedia and two radio stations of the antagonist movement – 98FM and Radio Entasi. On the next day, a demonstration was called at the Athens Polytechnic campus in Zografou.
Temporary Athens IMC url: http://indymedia.squat.gr/
Updates:

• An assembly has been called for Saturday, 13.04 at the Gini auditorium of the Athens Polytechnic (Patision Ave).
• The university authorities of the NTUA insist upon their political decision to cut off Athens Indymedia, Radio Entasi and 98FM (as of 22.00 GMT on April 12).
• The story so far
• Statement by the Athens IMC collective
• Statement by Radio Entasi

2. Another more extensive update: Indymedia goes on at other addresses (source: FTGS):

Athens indymedia, 98FM and Radio Entasi repressed by the greek government: the story so far

• April 12, a summary of the events so far (english original):

(ATHENS, 2013-04-12 2:33 pm UTC). Yesterday afternoon, access to the website of Indymedia Athens was disabled by National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) technical staff, apparently as a result of political pressure by minister of public order, Nikos Dendias. 

At 3 pm (1 pm UTC) on thursday, the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) network operations center (NOC) carried out an order by the university’s president Simos E. Simopoulos to cut Internet connectivity to a server hosted within the university network. This server was providing access to Indymedia Athens (https://athens.indymdia.org/), to the online radio stream and website of Radio98FM (http://www.radio98fm.org), a self-organised radio station, which was broadcasting from inside NTUA, as well as Radio Entasi. 

Recent Twitter communication indicates that the NTUA rectors council may have bowed to political pressure: MP Adonis Georgiadis of the New Democracy party has congratulated minister of public order, Nikos Dendias, for taking down the Indymedia website: https://twitter.com/AdonisGeorgiadi/status/322424852118138880 

Sources close to the operators of Indymedia Athens indicate that political pressure on NTUA’s rectorial council to shut down Indymedia Athens against has increased remarkably during the past days. 

However, no in-advance notification was given to Indymedia or the radio stations, and an official statement by the universities’ principal as to which legal process he was following, if any, has yet to be provided. The rector’s council alongside legal advisors will hold a meeting on the matter of Athens IMC and the free radios hosted in university premises tonight at 6 pm (local time). 

In response to the shutdown, Indymedia Athens and other affected parties have called for a protest near the Athens University campus in Zogragou, which has started today at 1 pm (local time). 

In the meantime, Indymedia Athens continues to be available via the Tor anonimization network at http://gutneffntqonah7l.onion/ (this address is only available when running the Tor software). The following Tor gateways allow access to it from standard web browsers:

http://gutneffntqonah7l.onion.to/

https://gutneffntqonah7l.tor2web.org/

https://gutneffntqonah7l.onion.sh/ 

Indymedia, which is also referred to as Independent Media Centre (IMC), originated during Seattle protests against the World Trade Organisation in 1999 and provides open publishing platforms that allows anybody to contribute. It is associated with the global justice movement, which is critical of neoliberalism and its associated institutions. A list of Indymedia centers around the world is available at http://contact.indymedia.org/cities.php (the global website at www.indymedia.org is currently unavailable due to technical issues) 

More information is available at http://indymedia.squat.gr/ as well as by following Twitter hashtags #free_indymedia and #indymedia

3. Radio Entasi denounces the collaboration of Nazis (SKAI media corp.) and government in their forced closure and that they continue broadcasting at 100.1 FM frequency now (source FTGS):

“Taking over responsibility”: statement by the Radio Entasi collective on its repression by the greek government

english original

Taking over responsibility…

We take over responsibility for the explosive ideas, the free spreading and conveyance of those, the formation of a free and direct-democratic radio assembly, the disturbance of domestic peace.

We, the assembly born on the days of the December riot of 2008 –which you would so much like to forget-, broadcasting on 100,1 fm.

In the 5 years of Radio Entasi, we saw the movement passing through many phases, we saw society resisting, instituting, and abandoning the traditional ways of politics. We saw the economic crisis evolving in a crisis of values of a system that can’t represent anybody no more , because there is nothing common anymore to be represented. Whole parts of society are being placed in a condition of exception : from the strikers in the Public Transportations to the villages in Skuries, Chalkidiki, people are being outlawed. Radio Entasi could not be an exemption. After all, we were present. Radio Entasi was there, on the riot of December 2008, on the occupied Syntagma square in 2011, and every time where the heart of the movement was beating, giving the 100,1 fm to the voice of the oppressed.

And while everybody knows that the radiowaves of Entasi are at the disposal of every fighting person, and while we respect our audience even in the KW that we are using, in contrast to the ‘legal’ radio stations and the cell phone antennas, the Law ignores that. As it also ignores the true essence of the university as a public, free space for the communication of ideas . The Law wants to muzzle Radio Entasi.

With an indictment and a lawsuit, the SKAI media company (which broadcasts ‘silence’ from the Parnitha mountain, illegally on 100,6 fm, to ‘protect’ the 100,3 frequency, whose shareholders promote fascists of G.D., openly or secretly), wants for us to shut up. Shut up? So that only the chandlers of solidarity, the grabbers of frequencies, the financiers of the new fascist battalions, the pimps of the environment and the forgers of information could speak on the fm? They are deluded.

Let the SKAI group, it’s advertisers and the authorities know that freedom for us is not a product to sell in a good deal with the customers, nor is it a trick to increase our ratings.

Freedom is our value and our project.

Radio Entasi will not silence! ! We continue to broadcast radically on 100,1 fm, interfering in the dominant frequencies.

RADIO ENTASI
100,1fm_ in Athens
http://www.entasifm.org