Greek media silence dissenting voices

This is the open letter cartoonist Tasos Anastasiou addressed to the main Journalists Union, ESHEA


Athens, September 30th 2011

Dear colleagues,

For the past ten years I have been employed as a cartoonist at TA NEA daily. Thousands of my political cartoons have been published, while my editors never showed the slightest intention of censoring my work.

Things changed drastically when Mr Memis took the helm of the newspaper. The newspaper started running very few cartoons of mine, discarding those critical of the Papandreou government.

I was told, via others, that I need to “mix wine with water”, to tone down my criticism – obviously in exchange for favourable working conditions.
This outrageous practice of censorship took a turn to the worse about six months ago, when publication of my cartoons ceased completely. I was unofficially offered to resign and get severance payment, which I of course refused.

Ever since, not a single of the cartoons I hand in every day has been printed.
Subsequently, Mr Memis told me I was about to be fired and said that the paper does not run my cartoons in order for me to … get used to it.

As a main reason for letting me go he evoked the well know economic difficulties , but further in our discussion, he stressed that in the current climate of political tensions, the newspaper cannot “stand” opposition views.
Regarding the “economic reasons” of my dismissal, I would like to inform you that the newspaper recently hired another cartoonist colleague.

I would therefore like to ask you to undertake all necessary steps to end censorship of my work and reinstate normal working conditions.
This is my appeal to you.

To act so that my dismissal ,a politically motivated purge reminiscent of other eras and other regimes, is reversed.

Kind regards

Tasos Anastasiou