One of the most disturbing phenomena of our time is the rise in violence against journalists. In 2022, there were 67 murders of journalists and 363 prison sentences in Latin America and Europe alone. The activists were supporters of authoritarianism, seeking power through the destruction of independent information networks and the suppression of civil liberties. Thus, the extermination of journalists becomes an indicator that signals the death of freedom and democratic governance, as societies quickly get used to their loss and forget about it.

It wasn’t always like that. In May 1948, George Polk, an American correspondent who had criticized the policies of the pro-Western Greek government and its American supporters during the civil war, was found murdered near the waterfront of Thessaloniki. The crime shocked the free world and for several months appeared in the international press almost as widely as the blockade of Berlin that was unfolding at the same time. Washington’s response was swift and harsh. General Donovan, a notorious American wartime spy, arrived in Athens with a request for a thorough investigation. His assistant was Colonel Kelis, an experienced counterintelligence officer familiar with Greek security issues. In Thessaloniki, the US Consul General spoke to top Greek officials protesting the lack of progress in the investigation. American correspondents conducted their own investigation and published an independent report. Ultimately, however, the proceedings and the decision of the criminal court were based on the confession of a little-known journalist, Grigoris Staktopoulos, who was sentenced to life imprisonment. Two communists were sentenced to death in absentia as natural criminals.

Despite the court ruling, today, 75 years later, Polk’s killers remain unknown, as are their motives. As for Staktopoulos, the evidence against him was fabricated on the basis of his confessions obtained through prolonged torture, both physical and psychological. It is not difficult to see the reasons why this happened. In 1948, at the height of the communist uprising and facing the threat of Soviet aggression in Europe, Greece was an exhausted and war-torn country dependent on its patrons, the UK and the US. Fear of communism dominated his politics and determined the course of Polk and Staktopoulos’ case. For example, the selection of Major Nikolaos Mushundis of Special Security to lead the investigation was in line with British and American guidelines.

In the spring of 1948, extensive searches in the Thessaloniki area turned up no evidence, while various theories attributed the perpetrators to the entire political spectrum from communists to royalists, British intelligence agencies, the CIA and the KGB. Public Order Minister Rentis wanted to investigate far-right paramilitaries, but was thwarted by conservatives who were investigating. Georgios Vlachos, editor of the Kathimerini, noted in his feature article, “God, let the killers be communists, because we’re lost if they aren’t.” Frustrated and ashamed, Mushundis, whom Donovan allegedly threatened to slap, contemplated suicide.

Seventy-five years later, the perpetrators remain unknown, as do their motives.

Foreign pressure determined Greece’s actions. Following a British demand, investigators avoided telling Reuters and British officials, despite the fact that Polk’s associates were linked to the former, and Polk himself sought the help of a British diplomat in Thessaloniki, Kot, to interview the DSE leader. Marcos Vafiadis. Cote, who worked in the secret service, was making contacts with the communists and had previously volunteered to help a Reuters reporter interview Marco. C. M. Wodehouse, the legendary “Colonel Chris” of the Occupation era, also expressed serious concern about Cote’s possible involvement in Polk’s murder. After an interview with Cote in 1992, Woodhouse hypothesized that “inadvertently, irresponsibly, but without murderous intent” Cote contributed to the unknown events that led to the murder. Woodhouse was unaware of the existence of a letter in Coat’s personal file in which a French communist journalist introduced the British diplomat to Marco’s headquarters as “an old member of ELAS wishing to renew contact”. The Frenchman is known to have been a Greek Communist sympathizer, but his undated letter remains intriguing and inexplicable.

The clearest indication of interference relates to the role of the Americans in presenting Stactopoulos as the prime suspect. When Kelis discovered that his investigation pointed to far-right culprits, the embassy arranged for him to be recalled to America. Kelis wrote to Donovan accusing Moushundi of misleading the investigation and named ten people “probably involved in the crime” or who “might have known something” about it. Of the ten, eight were high-ranking military or government officials; the tenth was Staktopoulos, a journalist and translator in Thessaloniki who sought out contacts with foreign correspondents and met with Polk.

Apart from Stactopoulos, the other people on the list Donovan gave to Secretary Rentis were too prominent to be considered suspicious. When Rentis announced to a ministerial committee that without the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator, American aid would cease, Staktopoulos’ name came to the fore and dominated the investigation. Staktopoulos was arrested (August 14, 1948), interrogated and imprisoned in the basement of the Security Service. He remained in solitary confinement during his trial (April 12–21, 1949) and after his conviction for another four years, until revelations of his abuse led to his transfer to regular prisons. In 1956, he published three letters pleading his innocence and describing his suffering. In August 1960, he was released after serving two-thirds of his term. In 1977, his appeal to the Supreme Court for a retrial was denied and he died in 1998.

George Polk met his gruesome death by trying to objectively cover the Greek Civil War from both sides. Stactopoulos fell victim to cynical expediency and judicial injustice. The memory of them is a trace in the annals of modern Greece.

Mr. Ioannis O. Yatridis is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Southern Connecticut State University and author of Murder and Criminal Justice in Greece during the Cold War: A Review of the Polk/Staktopoulos Case, Athens Review of Books, 115 (March 2020). ).