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Βild-Ζeitung: We put provocative headlines for Greece because they are true

24 May 2010 / 15:05:25  GRReporter
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For more than half a year Greece is in the economic typhoon center of Europe. News from the Mediterranean country come first in all television, radio and print news around the world but the most negative criticism Greece bear from the German media. "Not even a penny for the broke Greeks”, "Today bankrupt Greeks beg from us”, "Disorderly Greeks become more impudent”, "Farewell Euro – we will never see you again” (because Greece’s squander) are only part of German headlines Vima newspaper quoted. 

Journalist Yiannis Galianos from Vima newspaper took the difficult task to visit the offices of German magazine Βild-Ζeitung, which established itself as one of most critical to Greece recently, together with the German Focus. The purpose of his visit is to get a first hand idea of how and why the German press is attacking Greece with such ruthless headlines. Yannis Galianos describes his conclusions in the article, which he entitled "We are provocateurs" and refers to the German editorial team Βild. He met with the head of Berlin's department Nicolas Blume and magazine reporter Paul Rondshamer, who in April and May of this year was visited Athens, to follow closely the development of the “Greek topic”. 

"Do you know many bankrupt Greeks?" asks German journalist Blume. His question is directly related to the plight in which Greek finances are. "The country is truly bankrupt. Really! The state in turn is represented by its citizens. This means that every Greek citizen is in financial default, and his country," explains his logic the German reporter. However, his observations are that despite all Athenians live well. Blume’s Greek counterpart Galanios commented that the German reporter speculates and uses clichés. According to him Germans refer to the joking logical Greek proverb: "The policeman is a body. The buzuki is a body. So every policeman is a bouzouki." Except it does not seem too funny to him. 

Another issue touched upon by the German magazine was to cover the external debt of Greece, through the sale of some of the Greek islands, and the sale of the world historical monument - the Acropolis. According to the magazine for the Parthenon, the Greek government could get around €100 billion, or to repay one-third of its government debt. These “joking” proposals from Βild-Ζeitung are read for fun in Germany, but in Greece they affected deeply the national pride of known and unknown Greeks from all levels of society. In this case, German journalist Nicholas Blume acknowledges that the proposal for the sale of Acropolis was a joke, but the selling some islands is a real opportunity for profit without (of course) changing the nationality of the sold island. "Every company, which has declared bankruptcy sells all available assets in order to repay creditors," explains Blume. 

"Βild-Ζeitung lives well from the clichés it invents," commented bitterly the Greek journalist in Berlin. As a shock to the Greek visitor in Berlin sounded the following sentence by the German reporter Nicholas Blume: "It is true that we use provocative headlines," he says and continues: "but this is only to disclose fully the nature of the problem."

Tags: Bild Germany Greece crisis economy
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