REPORTERNET.COM

Recently, the whole issueof lending – or indeed the refusal to lend funds to Greek media companies, has come to the fore – all based on the political business dealings and pro or anti government stance that each newspaper or television network possesses.

By Dimitris Kastriotis

For goodness sake! If something like this actually transpires and the last fortress breaks down, our confidence in the line that the media takes is neutral (is that possible?) and its diminishment, means that we are actually left with nothing. Although we have heard the endless stories about bribes, commissions, fake stock market listings and scandals, we never imagined that publishers and television channel owners borrow (or undertake public/governmental advertising) through political mediation and thereby invite political pressure upon themselves.

To use sarcasm here, surely this is all a misunderstanding! And if harsh words were uttered, it was all in the passion of the moment. Banks never made loans available to anyone on the back of non – bankable criteria (heaven forbid the channels), the media was never influenced by their political attitude – and of course, governments have ever been involved with banks or publishers. We can rest assured as and I quote, nothing threatens the “overall smooth functioning of institutions”.

The fact is that banks aren’t lending funds to the media because political influences forbid them to do so but due to the fact that that the banks themselves have no money and the media no solvency or creditworthiness. This also means that the former Prime Minister George Papandreou did not fall from power due to interests or National and Alpha Banks’ failure to merge but because he screwed up the economy, a fact he doesn’t admit to.

So what does this all actually mean? Well, Greece’s institutions continue to function, the banks have no money, the media is bankrupt and the last Prime Minister’s failure who was elected by the Greek public (bearing in mind that Costas Karamalis, the Prime Minister before him, was probably worse). Personally, I would prefer the institutions to fall apart and on the flip side, for the banks to have money, for our media to be sustainable, and above all, for Greece’s political leaders, to possess skills. Maybe however, this is all interrelated with the “functioning of the institutions?” Is it not?