Greece
The 'birthplace of Democracy'?
Democracy or Dictatorship?
Under a dictatorship which began in 1967 and lasted for seven years, Greece experienced censorship, police repression, arbitrary arrests, torture and the anti-communist and nationalist propaganda. The coup was a result of enduring political instability, and the persecution of the Leftists was a part of the new socio-political reality, as the Greek Communist Party (ΚΚΕ) remained banned and those suspected for their political and democratic convictions faced exclusion from social, professional, as well as political life.[1]
Freedom of Expression
Nowadays, the constitution of Greece protects freedom of expression by Article 14, a lengthy provision that details the rights and restrictions. According to the first paragraph of Article 14: “every person may express and propagate his thoughts orally, in writing and through the press in compliance with the laws of the State”. Furthermore, Greece also cooperates with a number of international organizations and is a contracting party to treaties regarding freedom of expression, civil/political rights and access to information, such as the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. It has been, however, argued that the austerity measures introduced in 2010 have triggered violations of freedom of speech, and some reports from intergovernmental organizations, NGOs and civil society groups have argued that free expression, free thought, right to protest and some other rights have been systemically attacked by the Greek government.[2]
Scribbles or Street Art?
In terms of the expression via graffiti in Greece, it is important to observe that Athens has a significant street art scene. Some, however, propose that along the street art, there is arguably too many scribbles, as well, adding up to a number of slogans, tags and stenciling which change the city scape; also, some believe that the problem is out of control, and stress that local authorities are challenged by attempting to find funds for the cleanup. In 2016, the Mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis, initiated cleaning up of the city’s walls, and expressed that he viewed grafitti a ’’smudge’’ on the city; he also stressed that the protection of public spaces is the intention, and he invited the residents to participate.[3]
Freedom House Report
As for the report of the Freedom House, the profile of Greece for the year of 2018 labels the country as ’free’, and, moreover, gives the country a score of 2 out of 7 for ’freedom rating’, 2 out of 7 for ’political rights’, and 2 out of 7 for ’civil liberties’. In each of these ratings, 1 is correlated with ’Most Free’, whereas 7 is correlated with ’Least Free’. Furthermore, the ’Aggregate Score’ of the report is 85 out of 100, where 100 is correlated with ’Most Free’ and 0 with ’Least Free’. Finally, the country is labelled as ’Partly Free’ for the ’Press Freedom Status.[4]
Graffiti from Greece
Pictured below are some of the most intriguing pieces of graffiti the cohort found while living in Athens. Please click the button below to proceed to the complete repository of Greek graffiti.
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References
References
[1] Military Dictatorship (1967-1974) in retrospect: New historical approaches. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2018, from http://www.greeknewsagenda.gr/index.php/topics/culture-society/6386-two-conferences-on-the-colonels’-dictatorship-in-greece
[2] Index on Censorship. (2017, November 09). Greece: Freedom of expression takes a beating. Retrieved June 15, 2018, from https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2013/12/greece-freedom-of-speech-in-a-critical-status/
[3] Athens Mayor Gets Tough on Graffiti. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2018, from http://www.greece-is.com/news/athens-mayor-gets-tough-graffiti/
[4] Greece. (2018, January 16). Retrieved from https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/greece