Free Software & Digital Rights Noosphere

Following the previous post about Antonios Tsipropoulos case, I refer to George Koskotas. GK is a businessman, who in the late 1970s came in Greece and entered banking business. Many things have been written for this case and most of them are disorientating. I personally was also a victim of the decade-long rumors and mud about the man.

As it seems in Greece, since the digital media introduction, in the late 60s, there is a war about the control over media. Recently I was enlightened about the George Koskotas case. By who? Himself. I didn’t met him in real life, but for the first time I watched, without distraction, without comments, the pure solo version of the history by the man himself. A former journalist of the former National Public Radiotelevision (Ethniki RadioTileorasi – ERT) published in his own youtube channel the ANT1 private television channel transmission of the GK court filing.

For what spared through decades, to newspapers, television channels, magazines, George Koskotas was the Great Crook, the Al Capone of Greece, the man whose lust for power led him to the embezzlement of its own bank money. There is no specific main theme on the case, since there are a lot of, equally important.

One is about the sad story of how a young businessman gets involved without his will – as there are a couple of blackmails on the table – with politicians and from Administrative Assistant and then President of a bank, goes to jail for 10 years. For the most part, not for the specific case but for a judicial mistake back in the USA where he lived with his family at the 70s. But greek media not only doesn’t seem to care but also hide such facts.

The 20th Century Chronicles series of – also still not existing – Domiki Publishing, a subsidiary of former newspaper Mesimvrini (Noon News) in 1991 June journal, has not a single line about GK analytical court filing at June 10th, while it covers all gossip around the case. Even in 1998, about seven years after the court, publishers are still mocking people.

Gossip media are fired up on the release of GK from prison in 2001 and again in 2010 when someone spread the rumor about his divorce. True or not, people like Colosseum after all.

Another theme, which gives thought for a lot of public discussion is about – as I noted before – the control over media in Greece. The case about Andreas Papandreou 1981-1989 government, was to control the new rising private media with private business money, through continuous blackmails. The first blackmail, the nationalization of Bank of Crete, could easily made, and applauded  by people since Andreas Papandreou government was elected as a socialist government. In the second blackmail, GK “goes to prison” if he doesn’t finds immediately 5 billion GRD.

The real second blackmail was actually “except we nationalize Bank of Crete, you go to US prison”. A judicial mistake – since GK was found in fact two times not guilty by US courts – was a game card for the socialist government against GK.

The socialist government enforced GK to fire Pavlos Bakoyannis (son in law of Konstantinos Mitsotakis, politician and later assassinated by leftist extremist group 17N) and substitute all employees at GRAMMI Publishing with PASOK members or adjacent people. They even enforced him to buy Olympiakos F.C. and extent so much that no man’s mind could justify as wise actions of a so mild and cerebral man as GK.

So it comes the hot question. Was Andreas Papandreou actions justifed, even using the same methods with capitalists? The socialist government wanted to fight the bad right wing party, by using the same methods. I don’t know for you but this doesn’t sound much socialist to me. The political sinking of this party today is the bill to all these sins. These actions, except the bad political impact included also a bad economic impact, since no investor of the new EEC country member could accept blackmailing.

This socialist government wanted to stay in power, or in its own words (based on GK filing) to fight against other private media controlled by capitalists adjacent to Konstantinos Mitsotakis and his right wing party to the upcoming 1989 elections. All this with Swiss money. Because, the money of BoC was not even GKs money. As he states, GK got a huge loan to buy BoC. Numbers indicate that the amount of the loan couldn’t repaid in so short time all the above happened, as though successful BoC was.

In what guarantees GK got the loan, probably we ‘ll never know. Maybe he had guarantees from someone else in the business. But thinking about the current financial crisis, this is a very good example of how the loose credit system – the easy loan banks – are the source of the good and the bad. Remember that 80s was the apogee of the credit, just after the termination of  convertibility of the US$ to gold in 1971 and the end of Bretton Woods system.

So there is a hot question beneath. Where the actions of Andreas Papandreou – as a socialist – justified?

From one point of view someone could say that the end justifies the means, and who cares about the greek fat capitalist from USA, we just want to take advantage of his democratic feelings and then deceive and blackmail him. The revolution doesn’t fit into qualms.

But even when GK in jail, the victorious and almighty AP, came facing with the monster of financial derailment which we still pay for.

Was the socialist actions or there is exit stairs from the capitalist establishment of EEC – then EU?

Three recent stories give the answer. Which is that there were not, nor there will be in the future socialist governments in Greece.

The latter story is the recent purchase of the Communist Party television and radio channel 902 by a businessman. Layoffs without question, little public discussion on the issue and no demonstrations at all. Just money, nice, hot, flat euros. Still no answer for the use of the channel, but what’s for sure KKE didn’t sell it over to someone adjacent to SYRIZA.

There was a debate, because the channel was bought by the unified Coalition of Left (KKE + other left wing parties) in 1991 and when the coalition broke into pieces, KKE hold the tv and radio channel, while Synaspismos party, whose evolution SYRIZA is, didn’t get anything.

Yet another control over media case, again, involving socialists. Still the revolution didn’t came neither from 902 broadcasts nor from Avgi SYRIZA newspaper. But these media created – and continue to create – huge revenues for both parties.

The second story is about ERT, the former National Broadcasting Company with tens of radios and few tv channels all over the country. Wrongly, the three-party government (now two party-government after Fotis Kouvelis resignation over this issue dispute) decided sudden shutdown of ERT and layoffs for 2.600 people, promising the re-recruiting for some of them.

This created a leftist hype and hysteria and led to the seizure of former ERT buildings by many people, everyone having his own reason. Even a “pirate broadcast” was created, using the station’s infrastructure. Having the private consortium digital broadcasting network company DIGEA, ordered, the greek government shut down the digital broadcast of ERT and replaced it with what will be the new National Broadcaster.

This case is interesting because we still don’t know the outcome, but in which both sides – the KKE and SYRIZA adjacent demonstrators but also many independent journalists from one side and the government on the other side, have the means to broadcast.

Maybe not digital, but analog, but surely having premises (!) the rebels in fact have their own channel. The government has absolute control over private consortium DIGEA and already broadcasts movies and documentaries. But all will be judged upon the money, and how much people from the former ERT will be rehired in EDT. Also, don’t forget that the government will create a national broadcaster from scratch having the opportunity not only to create revenues but also to have the total control over this important media flow channel.

The third story, and back to Antonios Tsipropoulos case and then again to close the circle with GK case, is all about the future of control over media. It started with blogs and the censorship over them, continued with feed aggregator disputes all over the greek internet and now the situation is over control with thousand of fake news, conspiracy theories and fascist blogs creating hype and connection over other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

I don’t like conspiracy theories. But still I can’t believe that funEL was a random person. I don’t know his role, but I would like this case enlightened. Theodoros Roussopoulos started his political career as a PASOK fellow of mr. Evangelos Giannopoulos and – as far as I remember from a video Georgios Karatzaferis, LAOS extreme right wing political party leader, broadcasted once from his former channel Telecity – his descent is also from the same area with EG.

This could led to the conclusion that he could have very good connections to GK GRAMMI Publishing staff, since also GK was far relative to mr. Giannopoulos. But this is just an hypothesis, not so much to prove something, neither to charge anything to anyone.

But what its obvious – at least to me – that this case was created to control over blogs and feed aggregators.

The sad thing is that starting with this case, and continuing with Sokratis Giolias – troktiko blog – assassination, thousand of anonymous blogs, spreading rumors, reproducing hatred material, conspiracy theories etc emerged and former blog aggregators such as sync.gr (not existing anymore) became, against their will the trojan horse for what recently happened with neofascist – neonazist political party – gang of Golden Dawn.

Speculation over clicks through IP renewals, link rings and trackbacks over other international neofascist groups, led these blogs to be Top1 on feed aggregators listings. Now, feed aggregators no more, due to various reasons, these blogs are aggregated – latently – in everyone’s Facebook Wall. So, someone can read about thousand of bullshits from the debate about chemtrails, to the – justified or not – satirizing of a Mount Athos monk who died in 1994!

We are sprayed, indeed, I’ve no doubts about that.

But how all these answer to the question of Andreas Papandreou?

The answer is actually ambiguous. AP in the sense of the academic description of capitalism – besides he was a Harvard professor – was right. We see now that even after 3 years of memorandums and austerity measures we will not escape the crisis easily.

On the other hand, when I still listen to socialist voices, all I can say is “give me a break”.

The control over media, the money of this business and the consequent might a political party looks for, make it the same for me.

What makes the difference today are the whistleblowers, and successful independent businessmen.

After all what Freedom is all about the freedom of knowledge, the freedom of speech and the laissez faire.