Sordid underworld
Allow me to speak today as a person who was, for many years, the managing editor of Kathimerini, a newspaper which has, over the last few days, come under an orchestrated and filthy attack. This newspaper has always had the good fortune of being independent and unbiased. Especially during the past 12 years in which it has been owned by Aristides Alafouzos, Kathimerini has emerged as a financially prosperous enterprise, a rare, if not unique, success in the Greek press. The professed and unswerving principle of its owner, so far, has been that as the publisher of Kathimerini, the newspaper will do no business with the State. This is also a rare, if not unprecedented, pledge for a Greek media enterprise. The journalists at Kathimerini investigate, judge and write in accordance with their professional conscience and duty alone. This climate, as confirmed by our readers, has attracted to Kathimerini the most renowned Greek journalists who are distinguished not only for their professional skills but also for their dedication to the highest principles of their vocation. All these elements, of course, have earned Kathimerini prestige, credibility and considerable influence over public opinion. This last thing is a shared asset of the ownership and the employees alike. This is why the continuous attack that has been launched by certain power centers and their venal agents against the owners of Kathimerini, is also an attack on all of Kathimerini’s employees – in the sense that the aforementioned assets of our newspaper have come under threat and must be safeguarded. Of course, the world of the news media is a small one and, most importantly, is exposed to public criticism on a daily basis. The background and the motives of those who have engineered the attacks are well known to everyone. However, the articles in this newspaper serve a different purpose, and their goal is not to expose the obviously well-known charlatans of a sordid underworld of political and business entanglements. That is, until now; our disgust with their sorry state has surpassed our indignation.
