A reference to the Mayor's attack on the Kythera.News website is made in an article today, Saturday 7 May 2022 the Newspaper of the Editors in its printed and electronic versions. Read the article below:
Mayor threatens journalist
The mayor of Kythera, Efstratios Harhalakis, has been attacking the local news website Kythera News in recent days with insulting and threatening personal messages on the mobile phone of a journalist, public personal attacks and insinuations, hints and hints and lessons in journalism, accusations of false and slanderous news and threats of recourse to justice, the entire arsenal available to a local authority in order to silence criticism and revelations that are not to its liking.
While one after the other European journalistic associations reflect the decline in the indicators of press freedom in Greece in recent years, with the organization Reporters Without Borders ranking the country in last place in Europe, in Kythera another operation is underway to target and silence a journalistic voice that insists on the journalistic duty of comprehensive and thorough information and the control of the local government.
The occasion was a report by the editor and journalist of the website, Hippolytos Preka, last Monday, about the situation with waste management in the pier of the tourist village of Agia Pelagia. The report highlighted the reactions and discontent of residents on social media and republished photos of the crude cementing of the pier, including «a photo from the spot on Easter days [...] where it can also be seen that the natural environment and the seashore are being polluted and contaminated».
He also provided a post from the mayor informing that the photos were older and that there was no problem during the May Day weekend when the collection was interrupted. The following day, Precas revealed that a few minutes after the post, he received messages on his mobile phone from a person who «with an inappropriate style and insolent behaviour, among intense and highly slanderous accusations towards me, announced: “Get ready for a lawsuit...”. “No more jokes...”. “...What you are doing is systematic lying and misleading. The lawyer is taking over now. That's it.”.
This was followed by a delirious post by the mayor, who implicitly admitted that he was the sender, referring to «fake news, arbitrary interpretations and misleading news», «false impressions to citizens that supposedly the bins [...] cause “pollution and contamination of the seashore”, while citing Supreme Court jurisprudence that »a warning to take legal action in no case constitutes a threat« and questioning whether the author »has a legal status as a journalist«, apparently nostalgic for times when journalism was a closed profession.
This is not the first time that Mr. Harhalakis and his party have attempted to disguise their intolerance of criticism as a supposed defence of the truth.
On March 21, in response to an article by Mr.Preka commenting on the mayor's behaviour towards a local president, noting that «he lives isolated from society [...] and is trapped in the artificial public sphere of Facebook», the municipal faction of Mr. Harhalakis made a lengthy statement, indicating what questions he should ask and to whom in order to «become credible and the subject of public dialogue» and clarifying that «as a faction we do not allow Mr Precas (and no one else) to attack with such unacceptable characterizations against the twice elected mayor [...] No one anointed Mr Precas general commentator and honored on all matters.» Apparently the party only recognises the status of commentator to its members or to journalists who are in sympathy with it.
Its support for the journalist against «attempts to strangle any opposing voice» expressed the major opposition faction «We live here», accusing the mayor of particularly authoritarian and undemocratic behavior «reminiscent of the behavior of an authoritarian leader “banana”. For practices unacceptable in democracy, restriction of freedom of speech and an attempt to silence the press accused the mayor and the faction of the minor opposition »Man first«.
In response, Mr.Harhalakis attacked the major opposition, accusing it of political exploitation in order to stay «politically alive» and resorted to journalism lessons and unsound suggestions. Which showed...
