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''Eleftherotypia'' ( el, Ελευθεροτυπία, lit=freedom of the press) was a daily national
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
published in
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, Greece. Published since 21 July 1975, it was the first newspaper to appear after the fall of the
Regime of the Colonels In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...
, and for most of its period had been one of the two most widely circulated newspapers in the country. Generally taking a center-left, socialist stance, it was highly respected for its independence and impartiality. Following the economic downturn in Greece, the newspaper had to file for bankruptcy in 2011. Briefly taken over by a new publisher, lawyer Harris Oikonomopoulos, it was finally shut down in November 2014.


Profile

From the beginning, ''Eleftherotypia'' had been an opposition voice against the governments of the conservative
Nea Demokratia New Democracy (ND; el, Νέα Δημοκρατία, Néa Dimokratía, ) is a liberal-conservative political party in Greece. In contemporary Greek politics, New Democracy has been the main centre-right political party and one of the two major ...
party. Editors often adopted a social-democratic stance on a number of issues, but more radical viewpoints are also frequently represented in the paper, to a notably greater extent than in centre-left daily ''
To Vima ''To Vima'' ( el, Το Βήμα, lit=The Tribune) is a Greek weekly newspaper first published in 1922 by Dimitris Lambrakis, the father of Christos Lambrakis, as ''Elefthero Vima'' (Free Tribune). It was owned by Lambrakis Press Group (DOL), a ...
''. When in 1981, the socialist
PASOK The Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( el, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (; , ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it ...
party came into government, it adopted a more pro-government stance, but remained critical and at times harsh.


History


Foundation

Founded as a
cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...
owned by its journalists, it was nicknamed "the newspaper with 80 editors-in-chief". It was however soon taken over by the Tegopoulos brothers, and was published by businessman Christos ("Kitsos") Tegopoulos, retaining its traditional socialist domestic and international stance. In the era of , who had been editor-in-chief from 1976 until 2006, ''Eleftherotypia'' sold up to 160,448 copies and had more than 800 employees.


Bankruptcy

Amidst the
Greek financial crisis Greece faced a sovereign debt crisis in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Widely known in the country as The Crisis (Greek: Η Κρίση), it reached the populace as a series of sudden reforms and austerity measures that l ...
, ''Eleftherotypia'' was hit hard by dwindling revenues. Because of financial problems, Tegopoulos Publishing was unable to pay its employees from August 2011. A loan settlement with Alpha Bank was reached, causing the staff to be sharply cut and the headquarters to be sold. In October, ''Alpha Bank'' however withdrew the settlement, requiring the publisher to file for bankruptcy. The remaining 135 journalists however kept running what remained to be the second-largest newspaper of the country.


Relaunch and final closure

On 10 January 2013, ''Eleftherotypia'' and its internet site ''Enet'' were relaunched after new publisher Harris Oikonomopoulos had acquired 67% of Eleftherotypia’s shares from the Tegopoulos family. Under the new publisher, the newspaper, however did not recover. For nine months, the editors continued publishing the daily newspaper without being paid any wages. They proposed turning the newspaper back into a cooperative, but Oikonomopoulos turned them down. In November 2014 the newspaper's operations were finally halted and the editors were locked out from the newspaper's website and social media accounts.
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
described the closure of ''Eleftherotypia'', which it called "a rare voice of independence and impartiality", as the perhaps most shocking closure of the Greek media landscape. Former journalists of Eleftherotypia decided to publish a new cooperative newspaper with the name "
Efimerida ton Syntakton Efimerida ton Syntakton ( el, Η Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών, lit="Newspaper of the Editors") is the name of a Greek cooperative daily newspaper. History The newspaper was first published in 2012 by former workers of the defunct ' ...
".We had no investors. We did it alone, believing in our power and abilities theguardian.com
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Editions


Weekend editions

The newspaper's Sunday edition ''Kyriakatiki Eleftherotypia'' ( el, Κυριακάτικη Ελευθεροτυπία) hosted select articles from '' Le Monde Diplomatique''. Since 2009, it contained ''The New York Times International Weekly'' supplement, featuring a selection of articles from ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' translated into Greek. The Saturday and Sunday editions of ''Eleftherotypia'', usually featured articles by a group of journalists, who collectively use the name the "Ios" (Greek "Ιος" meaning "virus"). The Ios were known for targeting and heavily criticizing the Greek far right, the church, the army, the police and United States foreign policy.


The "" comics magazine

Every Wednesday, the newspaper features the "" ("ennea") comics magazine, named after the classification of comics as the " ninth art".Letter by Angelos Mastorakis, editor of ''9''
''9'' enjoys high readership of approximately 200,000 readers weekly. The magazine regularly organizes comics exhibitions and every year holds a competition for new talents and new creators, through which many young Greek comic artists have emerged, such as Helias Kyriazes, Tasos Papaioannou, Argyris Mavreas, Katerina Vamvasaki and
Vasilis Lolos Vasilis Lolos (Greek: Βασίλης Λώλος) is a Greek comic book artist known for his work on '' The Pirates of Coney Island'' for Image and '' 5'', a self-published multi-national anthology. He also assisted My Chemical Romance in designing ...
. Each issue usually features an ongoing "central story" which usually takes up four or five consecutive issues, a science-fiction short story and various comics, strips and caricatures. Since the beginning of the magazine's publication, in June 2000, no issue has been published without a woman on its front page. Daily political cartoons were provided by Kostas Koufogiorgos and Vaggeli Papavasiliou.


Controversy

In April 1977,
Revolutionary Organization 17 November Revolutionary Organization 17 November ( el, Επαναστατική Οργάνωση 17 Νοέμβρη, ''Epanastatiki Organosi dekaefta Noemvri''), also known as 17N or the 17 November Group, was a Greek far-left Marxist–Leninist urban ...
(17N) sent a manifesto to ''Eleftherotypia'', titled "Reply to the parties and groups" ("Απάντηση στα κόμματα και τις οργανώσεις"). The preface of the manifesto stated that ''Eleftherotypia'' was chosen because "a) it reported with respect to the facts of the attacks and b) gave voice to the full spectrum of the Left, even when not accepting its causes". This was the beginning of a trend that continued for almost every such action 17 November undertook, up until the organization's capture in 2002. Other Greek left wing radical and terrorist organizations, such as ELA, as well as small militant anarchist groups, also send their communiques exclusively to ''Eleftherotypia'', under the assumption that the newspaper, while unlikely to be directly supportive, would be more likely to publicise their views. The newspaper became known for its policy of publishing the proclamations of such groups without criticism. Until 2002 it abstained from condemning terrorist attacks, including assassinations. In the past, some ''Eleftherotypia'' editors have also criticised counter terrorism laws, with some perceiving this as evidence that the publication was supportive of
terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
.Manolis Vasilakis, ''"Kala na pathoun"'', A research on the reactions of Greek media and the public after the 9/11 attacks. In November 2005, the
Court of Appeals A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...
in Athens found the publisher ''Tegopoulos Publishing'', as well as editor-in-chief Serafim Fintanidis and another 2 persons guilty of slandering the Public Prosecutor of the trial of the 17N terrorist group, District Attorney Christos Lambrou. They were fined Euro 60,000 each to be paid to Mr. Lambrou.


See also

*
Politics of Greece Greece is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the President of Greece is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government within a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the gov ...
*
List of newspapers in Greece The number of national daily newspapers in Greece was 68 in 1950 and it increased to 156 in 1965. Mid through the Greek financial crisis in 2016, on a national level there were 15 daily general interest, 11 daily sports, 4 daily business, 10 week ...
*
Efimerida ton Syntakton Efimerida ton Syntakton ( el, Η Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών, lit="Newspaper of the Editors") is the name of a Greek cooperative daily newspaper. History The newspaper was first published in 2012 by former workers of the defunct ' ...


Notes


External links


Ios Website
{{Authority control Daily newspapers published in Greece Greek-language newspapers Newspapers published in Athens Newspapers established in 1975 1975 establishments in Greece Publications disestablished in 2014 2014 disestablishments in Greece Defunct newspapers published in Greece