Phileleftheros has a long history, built on principles, values and freedom of speech. It has stood on democratic foundations, and defended them at the most critical moments in this country’s history. Our record speaks for itself. We’re not about to hand out credentials to anyone, and we don’t need to.
Throughout that history, we’ve operated as a genuinely pluralistic paper. Every viewpoint has a place on our pages, even when those viewpoints clash head-on. They have a place across our group’s digital editions too, and that is not up for negotiation. That is democracy. Unfortunately, we now find ourselves in a period where even the obvious needs spelling out: what freedom of speech actually means, and what democracy actually means. For some, these are simply foreign concepts, which is exactly why they sit on the other side of the fence. They always will.
Criticism of us is always welcome. We’ve proven that time and again. What we won’t tolerate is baseless, insulting name-calling. That kind of behaviour isn’t in Phileleftheros’s nature. It sits entirely outside how the media is meant to operate in a democracy. It’s foreign to everything Phileleftheros stands for, and we will not tolerate any such attempt. We will not put up with it. We will confront it. That much is certain.
If some people can’t handle criticism, then clearly they have no business operating in a free, democratic society. We, at Phileleftheros, stand against this kind of behaviour, and we will keep saying so, over and over, until it sinks in. We will keep standing against it for as long as this behaviour and this mindset persist.
The media, journalists, have a job to do, and they can be judged on it. Fairly. Not through baseless, blanket condemnation. No politician gets to fling mud.
We raise all of this because of the unacceptable attack, one that falls outside any standard of ethics or decency, by MP Michalis Paraskeva on a Phileleftheros journalist. Referring to our journalist, he called them “controlled” and a “propagandist” serving “political expediency.” These attacks are aimed at Phileleftheros as a whole.
Baseless, sweeping remarks like these, which amount to little more than an attempt at pre-emptive censorship, are not acceptable. And they shouldn’t be tolerated either by the MP’s party, ALMA, or by Parliament, which has its own mechanisms to respond and act.
We expect a response to this behaviour, and we will return to this matter.
