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Many monstrous lies were written about the Kissari refugee case last summer. For a long time I avoided public intervention. The investigative journalism continued, as did the forensic, and because of the toxicity—especially on social media—I felt that any intervention would be counterproductive. My current participation in Mr. Drimiotis’s article posted in “K” on the issue of February 26 is probably also a waste of time. A line above (“plagiarism”, “a fabricated report”, “he knew it was a fairy tale,” the observer writes without arguments or evidence), a line below, what’s the difference?

The answer is that it would not have happened if it were not an indicator (libello) of the evil spirit of Greek journalism and writing. Especially when she finds an outlet in a newspaper that’s known to be credible like “K”. I will not dwell on the errors in the article in such detail, mainly because of their number and degree of stupidity. A rudimentary fact check would probably save only links and intent. For example, “first pointed out [ο υπογράφων] problem,” writes Mr. Drimiotis (at the time it was first covered by the Greek press), who indulges in a flurry of conspiracy theories (one Syrian “was not a refugee… but lived in Germany”), which he apparently got caught from Twitter, and they rely on, among other things, Instagram or the manicure of one of the refugees.

For lack of space it is impossible to dwell on the case as such. But in short: last July, while I was on holiday, I was informed that the European Court of Human Rights had ordered the rescue of the refugees in question in Greece. With other colleagues and lawyers, we systematically communicated with them. For quite some time, despite the amount of evidence they had, the Greek authorities claimed they “couldn’t find them” on the island. Then it was argued that the island is still “Turkish” and any rescue operation could lead to a hot episode. All this long before the announcement of the girl’s death and before the undersigned submitted any report for publication.

What has been definitively proven and systematically omitted? That refugees also existed and were on the island, and the Authorities knew about it, and rescue could be carried out by order of the Court before the application for death, and the “Turkish Island” was not “Turkish” after all. , but divided – and first of all the Greek. The latter in particular – the verbal, and not just the cession of the territory to Turkey by ministerial and other mouths – surprisingly did not touch the strings of professional patriots in the media and in ministerial / parliamentary chairs.

As for the girl. Spiegel, like many other reputable international media (Le Monde, Al Jazeera, Channel 4, etc.), recorded refugees’ complaints about her death. The Spiegel report, as the journal itself publicly acknowledged, erroneously omitted the usual and self-explanatory proviso that the death was “on the testimony of refugees” when editing the response. However, the complaints about the death of the child were real and nominal. They were also reported to the prosecutor’s office after they were rescued by the Greek authorities. At first, they were even received by Mr. Mitarakis, who sympathized with them. On the basis of these testimonies, the parents and those members of the group who remained in Greece had already received asylum from the Greek authorities, who considered their testimonies to be highly credible. After several months of re-examining the matter, Spiegel never stated that it was not a girl, found no evidence that his death was faked, and certainly did not apologize, as promoted by the government and his friends.

A few months after the events, “K” published a report on the girl’s death. The report is based on the anonymous testimony of a member of the refugee group. Of course, this front-page report, based on anonymous testimony months after the events, is perfectly legitimate. I believe it was equally legitimate and even necessary for foreign or domestic media to publish named testimony during events, and especially when human lives were at stake.

After all, if the local press (except in cases) were doing their job, they would know (and add to the body of evidence) that human rights violations at the border are well documented, and would not pretend to be out of control. . clouds about the troubles that a group of refugees endured from the Greek and Turkish authorities. These violations have been documented both by Spiegel and by countless other foreign media and international organizations (from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to Le Monde, Politico, The Guardian, the United Nations, Amnesty International). The violations were confirmed by the European authorities (OLAF) and led to the resignation of the head of Frontex. Actions that recently led Frontex’s human rights spokesman to recommend the agency’s withdrawal from Greece, according to The New York Times.

But this is not the case for domestic defenders of power, who, rather than investigating and holding the authorities to account, prefer to undermine reputation, attack the Syrian family and pursue an open (and admittedly successful) strategy of silencing any remaining voice in defense of the European acquis. humanity, culture and justice in our country.

Everyone was assigned.

George Christidis

Journalist, correspondent for Der Spiegel in Greece and member of the Board of Directors. Association of Foreign Press Correspondents.