Greece: Violations of freedom of expression
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Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 12:04:37 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Greece: Violations of freedom of expression
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Greek Helsinki Monitor & Minority Rights Group -
Greece <[email protected]>
Greece: Violations of freedom of expression
IFEX- News from the international freedom of expression community
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ACTION ALERT - GREECE
27 May 1998
Injunction banning sale of book; teacher charged with proselytism
SOURCE: Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), Kifisia
(GHM/IFEX) - According to GHM, a report from the Reuters news agency
has confirmed that a Greek court has slapped a temporary injunction on
sales of a dictionary in the latest round of a dispute over an
allegedly insulting definition contained in the book. On 26 May 1998,
court officials in Thessaloniki (in northern Greece) confirmed the
decision, made in response to complaints by a local conservative
politician over one of the dictionary's definitions for "Bulgarians."'
The dictionary states that "Bulgarians'' is used in Greek slang as a
pejorative term for supporters or players of sports teams in
Thessaloniki, which is near the Bulgarian border. Fans of soccer and
basketball teams from Athens and the rest of the south often taunt
northern fans and players, especially from the PAOK team, with the
term.
The inclusion of the definition triggered outrage in northern Greece
and public criticism from ministers who said it had been a mistake to
put it in. Dictionaries of modern Greek are rare, and the author,
George Babiniotis, did not conceal his anger. "People in positions of
responsibility should know better. Are we supposed to leave out all
the words we do not like? This is a type of censorship which we have
not seen for many years", he told Flash radio. Babiniotis said he had
agreed that any new editions of the dictionary would list the
definition in a special entry for sports slang.
A court hearing on the injunction is scheduled for 28 May 1998, but
the temporary ban on sales is practically meaningless as the first
print run has almost sold out already.
In a separate case, on 18 June 1998, Eva Androutsopoulos will go on
trial in Komotini (in northeastern Greece) for the violation of
article 4 of the (Metaxas regime�s) Obligatory Law 1363/1938. She is
charged with proselytism, which allegedly occurred when she was
teaching German in a private tutorial school. She is charged as
follows: "in the month of May 1995 and on a date that was not
ascertained, she proselytized by abusing of the inexperience of others
(...) attempting in an indirect way, that is by making frequent
references during class time to Buddhism and to religious beliefs of
the Orient, to introduce pupils to the religious conscience of
believers in different dogmas ("heterodox"), aiming at changing the
content of their religious conscience." GHM notes that Androutsopoulos
is not a Buddhist.
The prosecution was triggered by a report to the public prosecutor by
the Bishop of Komotini. This is the first trial on proselytism in
Greece after the country�s conviction by the European Court of Human
Rights on the Kokkinakis affair in 1993, although a new conviction of
Greece is expected in connection with an older proselytism case
involving Greek Protestants.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Send appeals to authorities:
- reminding them that Greece ratified the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, Article 19 of which guarantees the right to freedom of
expression, including the right to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas of all kinds
APPEALS TO:
Mr. Costas Simitis
Prime Minister of Greece
Maximou Megaron
Athens
Fax: +30-1-6716183
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
For further information, contact Nafsika Papanikolatos & Panayote
Elias Dimitras, Greek Helsinki Monitor & Minority Rights Group -
Greece, P.O. Box 51393, GR-14510 Kifisia, Greece, tel:
+30-1-620.01.20, fax: +30-1-807.57.67, e-mail:
[email protected], or [email protected], Internet:
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
The information contained in this action alert is the sole
responsibility of GHM. In citing this material for broadcast or
publication, please credit GHM.
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