ESIEA list sparks ERT outrage
One day after Greece’s largest journalists’ union named 1,050 journalists working in government ministries and state media, at the height of a public debate on journalistic ethics, workers at the public broadcaster ERT complained yesterday that they had been unfairly selected for public exposure. The Athens Journalists’ Union (ESIEA) made public the list provided by government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos after complaints that several private media workers are also on the state payroll. While about 1,050 names were published – including ERT and state Athens News Agency employees – the list did not say whether these journalists also had jobs in private media. In a letter to ESIEA and the Authority for the Protection of Personal Data, ERT journalists voiced outrage at their names «being dragged through the mud.» Meanwhile, independent MP Stefanos Manos said the entire public sector was obliged by law to publish annual lists of the journalists it employs, and their salaries. The ESIEA list contained no salaries, and was limited to ministries and state media.
