Latest posts by Asteris Masouras
Greece: A Lukewarm Reaction to Attacks on Immigrants
Greek blogger To Vytio (The Jerrycan) writes an elegiac post [el] on his return to Athens from a weekend trip, finding the city gripped in violence, fear, apathy and scary rhetoric. “Our mortal leap was the reaction to what happened in Athens against the immigrants. Lukewarm, blasé. With [right-wing extremists],...
Greece: A Proposal to Reform the Police
Greek blogger Leonidas Irakliotis proposes several measures [el] to reform the police and restore public trust, in light of recent police violence and failure to deal with a wave of anti-immigrant attacks in Athens. “As long as we tolerate this incompetence, we will suffer from an under-performing police force; resulting...
Greece: No Peace without Justice
“I cannot remember, in living memory, any instance where I felt a distinct similarity between the events happening in Greece to the Nazi Germany pogroms against Jews and communists of the 1930s.” Technology blogger Cosmix breaks with his usual subjects to dissect the causes of recent rampant violence against immigrants in Athens,...
Egypt: Brutal Army Crackdown of Nakba Day Protests in Cairo
The Egyptian army cracked down with brutal force on a Nakba day protest in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo on May 15, 2011, firing teargas, rubber-coated steel bullets - and, some reported, live bullets - at protesters. Coverage quickly turned dramatic, reminiscent in tone of the 18 days of the revolution, as many protesters and journalists tweeted non-stop reports of the clashes and posted snapshots.
Greece: Wave of Racist Attacks on Immigrants in Athens
In the past days, right-wing extremists in Athens, Greece have launched pogrom-like attacks on immigrants in the downtown Athens area. Dozens have been injured. It began on May 10, one day after a 44-year old escorting his pregnant wife to the hospital was mugged and stabbed to death.
Greece: Arab Cyberactivists To Speak About Networked Uprisings
Global Voices authors Tarek Amr and Lina Ben Mhenni, as well as the administrator of Tunisian group blog Nawaat, Malek Khadraoui, will be speaking in Athens on May 7, 2011 about the Arab revolutions and online censorship, in an event [el] organized by Greek political zines re-public and konteiner. Nawaat is the...
Tweeting Bin Laden: Have US Journalists Become Citizen Reporters?
When news of Osama bin Laden's death broke on May 2, 2011, journalists in the United States were tweeting and using social media to report what they saw on the streets. It marks an interesting contrast to how 9/11 itself was reported in 2001 when social media was still only a nascent technology. Have journalists finally become citizen reporters?
Greece: Protesting football fans rampage in Thessaloniki
In an unexpected flareup up of football violence, fans of two local football clubs, Iraklis and PAOK, clashed in the center of Thessaloniki, Greece on April 26, 2011. They attacked storefronts, apartments buildings and parked vehicles, while riot police flooded the downtown area with tear gas.
Libya: Remembering Photojournalists Hetherington and Hondros
Award-winning, renowned war photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were killed in action on April 20, 2011, in Misrata, while covering the chaotic frontline of the Libyan conflict. Fellow professionals mourned their slain colleagues, and reminisced on two lives lived in full, and in peril, in the pursuit of truth, while all major photography outlets paid tribute to their work.
Egypt: “We are all Maikel Nabil”
The sentencing of blogger Maikel Nabil to 3 years in prison by a military tribunal in closed session for criticizing the army, two days after a bloody crackdown in Tahrir Square, has Egyptian netizens in an uproar, exercising their newfound free speech rights while seeing them being threatened
Egypt: Crackdown on Tahrir After “Cleansing Friday”
Tahrir Square was the scene of a brutal crackdown on the night of the biggest protest since Mubarak's ousting, which seemed to have revived the spirit of the revolution, harking back to some of the darkest Friday nights of the country's 18 days of protest. Asteris Masouras brings us the latest from netizens in the second of a two-part series.
Egypt: “Cleansing Friday” in Tahrir Square Reboots the Revolution
For the tenth week in a row since the Egyptian revolution began in January 25, 2011, Cairo's people took to downtown Tahrir square in large numbers to peacefully demonstrate against corrupt officials remaining in power and to show solidarity to Arab uprisings. Asteris Masouras takes us to the heart of Tahrir in the first of a two-part series.
Greece: Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Succeeds in Hard Times
The week-long 13th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival presented a line up of approximately 220 films from around the world from 11-30 March, 2011, in Thessaloniki, Greece. Themes included regional retrospectives (this year focusing on the Middle East and Africa) and tributes to Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa and Czech Helena Trestikova.
Greece: Leftist journalist “mistakenly” detained and beaten by anti-terrorist police
Radical left journalist Dimosthenis Papadatos-Anagnostopoulos was assaulted and detained during a counter-terrorism sweep in Athens. Blogger tsakthan writes [el]: “According to his testimony, he was beaten by the anti-terrorist squad near his home, shoved in a car, transferred to Police HQ, strip-searched and questioned for hours in a dark room...
Greece: Uproar over plan to build border fence and expel migrants
Greek Citizen Protection minister Christos Papoutsis provoked fierce reactions on new year's eve, by announcing his government's new zero-tolerance immigration policy.
Greece: Teargas under the Acropolis
The financial crisis gripping Greece has led to new clashes between protesting workers and police, most recently at the foot of the Acropolis of Athens on October 13 when riot police teargassed contract employees of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, who were protesting against unpaid wages and demanding permanent contracts.
Greece: Life Sentence for Officer who Shot Teen Sparking 2008 Riots
After two years of deliberations, a court has delivered a sentence of life in prison for the police officer who shot and killed 15-year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in December 2008. His killing led to mass rioting and protests in several cities across Greece, fueled by rage over police brutality, and impunity and corruption in the Greek political system.
Greece: World Cup-Mania Provides Respite from Financial Crisis
Despite the dire financial crisis unfolding in Greece, many Greeks have taken to the 'social media World Cup' with gusto - perhaps hoping for a repeat of the amazing and uplifting victory in the Euro 2004 championship.
Greece: General strike rallies met with violence
General strike rallies in Athens and Thessaloniki against a second wave of austerity measures dictated by eurozone finance ministers were met with preemptive and simultaneous police attacks, according to citizen media reports.
Greece, Germany and the middle finger of Venus de Milo
In the continuing drama of the Greek financial crisis, a row erupted last week because of a German magazine cover that depicted ancient Greek statue Venus de Milo flipping a middle finger at the European Union.
Greece: Bloggers respond fiercely to financial crisis
Greek bloggers react with uncommon drama, spirit and gravitas to the financial crisis facing Greece. The socialist government elected last October is battling currency speculators while trying to avoid defaulting on the country's debt.
