I don't know where to start, so as not to prejudice those reading this text – on the one hand. On the other hand, if what I understood from the moment I heard it is indeed what I fear, then I really don't know anything... So, let me start from the beginning.
It goes without saying, then, that during the day (Wednesday, January 19), I had been thoroughly informed—as had many, most, I imagine—about the case of Agriculture Bika, the brave 24-year-old who reported the rape her, at dawn New Year's Day, by one or more wealthy young men in a suite at a hotel in Thessaloniki and while she was unconscious and probably drugged. I had, let's say, read Christos Demetis' powerful text, I had seen news reports, I had heard something strange press releases «according to the complainant's allegations...» on a major radio station, but let's not make an issue of it...
And, of course, I had watched carefully all 47 minutes of the interview the girl gave to Makis Triantafyllopoulos and zougla.gr, returning with admirable composure to what happened before and after her rape. And especially after, with the negligence (?) of the prosecuting authorities, it really annoyed me.
At 9 p.m., I sit down to watch and the main news bulletin on ERT1. The report on the alleged rape case was extensive. And of course, like all news programs, it relied heavily on the girl's interview with Makis—well, once the toothpaste is out of the tube, there's no putting it back in. And here, Triantafyllopoulos—remembering some good old days in investigative and exposé reporting (and no, I don't mean the tabloid journalism of Korkolis, Aslanis, etc.)—had made sure to squeeze the tube for good.
And suddenly, I hear the public television video report saying: «The forensic examination was conducted on the same day as the complaint, Sunday, January 2, [etc.]». And I'm staying!
First of all, The «day of the complaint» was not, of course, Sunday, January 2, but New Year's Day., since the terrible events reported by Georgia took place, as is well known, immediately after New Year's Eve.
And now we come to the second and clearly more serious «slip-up» (God forbid) in the ERT1 report. So, if someone had no other source of information apart from public television, they would believe, assume, and rest assured that the medical examiner examined the girl as soon as possible after she was abused.. As it should be.
Except that everyone else who gets their news from other sources, and who, above all, had seen the girl's interview with Makis, had heard clearly that The medical examiner finally examined the victim on the third day after the incident.. Not on Saturday, January 1, nor on Sunday, when Georgia returned to the department and left again without having accomplished anything and still unwashed, but on Monday, January 3. She says so explicitly at 37’ of the interview, and Triantafyllopoulos repeats it immediately afterwards.
That's my point.
If this is a sloppy report that simply failed to check its facts, it will be neither the first nor the last. It's the wrong topic for such a blunder, of course, but to err is human, what can you say. I just hope that the editor-in-chief who didn't catch the mistake pays for it, and not the poor reporter.
But what if no one was at fault?; What if editors and reporters on public television did their jobs obediently, as their superiors ordered them to?; Then, I'm afraid, we have a huge problem. Then, alas, It seems as if ERT1's main news program deliberately and consciously attempted to gloss over the Prosecution's shameful delay in having the complainant examined by a medical examiner. In other words, he went to get the Prosecution off the hook.
I fear, in fact, that the somewhat ill-considered rush to report the story in order to emphasize exactly when exactly Georgia Bika was examined—a detail which, let's face it, is of less interest to the average viewer at this stage than other aspects of the case—but it does reveal something. And what it reveals is disturbing. And it awaits some kind of explanation...
The point in question in the report at 1′.47”.
By Tatiana Kapodistria
