Giorgos Romeos, veteran journalist and politician, dies
Veteran journalist and politician Giorgos Romeos died on Friday, aged 89.
He served as editor in chief of To Vima newspaper, general manager of state-run broadcaster ERT, deputy and member of the European Parliament (including European Parliament Vice-President) and held several ministry portfolios under PASOK. For two years (1976-1978), he had also served as vice-president of Journalistrs’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers (ESIEA).
Romeos was born in Corfu in 1934, studied at the economy and commerce university ASOEE (currently, Athens University of Economics and Business) and followed a career in journalism at To Vima and Ta Nea. When PASOK swept to power in 1981 he was appointed general manager of ERT and first became PASOK deputy in 1984. He also served as deputy and alternate National Economy minister, Alternate Foreign Affairs minister, and Public Order minister, besides being elected member of PASOK’s Central Committee.
“He was a prominent journalist and author, expressed progressive views, and served the democratic wing with devotion and selflessness,” PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis said. expressing his deep regret and condolences.
ESIEA expressed its condolences and said he had “left an indelible print on honest and investigative journalism, and became an example of ethos.” The Union described him as “a person with integrity, honest, and well- and mild-mannered. Despite his great successes, he remained modest and humble, and stood by the Union and his colleagues to the end.”
It added that in 1963, along with the late Yiannis Voultepsis and Giorgos Bertsos, “and despite the suffocating and threatening stranglehold by the police, he revealed the perpetrators and brains behind the assassination of [peace activist] Grigoris Lambrakis.”
During his incarceration by the Greek junta, Romeos smuggled news abroad, it said.
Giorgos Romeos’ funeral will take place on March 1, at 2:30 p.m., at the cemetery in Halandri.
[AMNA]
