In this issue I had planned to present a review of English language news sources for Greece. Indeed this was one of the first articles I had planned for the journal when I started it. However, two key sources of news about Greece have recently disappeared or reduced their services, and I have not found out why or what their prospects are for return. Slightly diminished, here is a list of sources of info.

Of course, I cannot claim this is complete. But I have used some internet search engines, and looked at the 'news sources' page in a number of leading Greek web sites, and here is what I've found. For each site, I will talk about their web site, what they post to the newsgroup soc.culture.greek, and what is available by subscription.

Cosmos (vanished)

This news summary, like most reported below, was fairly heavily oriented towards repeating statements of party leaders and government officials. Both the news summary, and the web site seem to be unavailable and I have no idea what is going on. Too bad.

Athens News Agency (partially vanished)

The forthnet site as just the latest edition, the HRI site has an archive. This is again, a daily bulletin with much the same info as in Cosmos or in MPA (below). More government ministers howling at each other. If it is government controlled, give them credit for quoting, sometimes extensively, the various opposition party leaders. By and large its government news - you can learn about what is going on via government reaction but that is indirect at best. It did have one of the larger daily bulletins. The subscriptions and postings to soc.culture.greek are apparently suspended or terminated. Can get full info at the web site.

Athens News Electronic Edition

Antenna Radio News

Cyprus News Agency

Cyrpus Press Information Office

Macedonian Press Agency (MPA)

Another daily bulletin, now the leading source in soc.culture.greek in the absence of ANA and Cosmos. This - like all the rest - is too oriented to quoting government ministers, but also adds to that with occasional analysis pieces that quote other people.

The Weather

I haven't done any systematic survey of Turkish sources, but I would suggest adding one to your reading list for two reasons. First their coverage of Greek-Turkish squabbling is a useful check on Greek hyper-nationalism, and secondly, they cover the maneuverings with oil in connection to Iran and the Caucasus, issues ignored in the Greek press despite the possible impact on shipping in the Aegean and continental shelf issues. Unfortunately, the Turkish sources cited here seem to be much more government run, and are sometimes nothing more than simple propaganda.

TRKNWS-L "Turkish Radio Hour"

Who: Don't know - this feed seems to come via something called the "Turkish Radio Hour"
Subscribe: to [email protected] message: subscribe TurkC-L [e-mail] [actual name]
Content: This is a near daily publication (its schedule has always been mysterious to me) that offers a number of news briefs on politics, economics and sports.

"Turkish Press Digest"

Who: From Turkish ministry of Foreign Affairs
Web: archive at http://www.hri.org/news/turkey/trkpr/
Subscribe: send e-mail with content "subscribe trkpr -digest" to [email protected]

These two overlap extensively and - even more than the Greek sources - simply represent government press releases. Economic items are often just announcements of big development projects and admiring quotes from visiting business types on how wonderful Turkey is for business. Still, by reading between the lines you can get useful information, especially of economic developments.

And Now, for Something Completely Different

U. S. State department daily briefing

Who: the U. S. state department daily press briefing, transcribed.
Subscribe: send e-mail with content "subscribe std -digest" to [email protected]

This is not for the faint of heart, but is an interesting example of how many different ways there are to say 'no comment.' The only reason for a philhellene to see this is for the daily question about the Aegean islands. Some fellow named Mr. Lambros daily tries to get the U. S. State Department to say something else on the Aegean islands other than "we hope Turkey and Greece will work out their differences." True, occasionally he gets a ruling that Gravdos or some other island is Greek, but in months of harassment, the State Department spoksperson has never slipped up and admitted that Imia is Greek. I assume most reporters regard Lambros as a pest, and he seems resolutely cluless to how one might actually get information from the State Department, but give him marks for persistence.

Summary Lament

The various daily briefings do overlap considerably. Most are not 'news' as we would recognize from a daily paper or weekly newsmagazine in the United States. Not only is the level of analysis weak, but 'feature' stories that give you the feel of daily life and what Greeks are thinking about is just missing except for a tidbit or two in the Athens News Electronic Edition. Even on political stories, you aren't going to hear anything off the record, or from backbenchers to say nothing of political analysts or business people.

My recommendation? Subscribe to one of the biggies (COSMOS, if it ever comes back; MPA or ANA), add a Cyprus source and a Turkish one. Definitely look at the Electronic Edition of the Athens News and Antenna news. That and read a few books, cause this isn't going to do it. I shouldn't be totally negative, what you can find out now is much more news than was available 5 years ago, but it doesn't represent real news.

Coming Up Next Time

This will do for the December and January issues. I'll take a break for Christmas and be back on February 1st with more. See you then.

Philhellenic Perspective

is published once a month to the newsgroups soc.culture.greece and rec.travel.europe as well as appearing on the web. It is published by John P. Nordin who is solely responsible for its contents. You may reproduce this material, in whole or in part provided you provide proper acknowledgement of the source, and you don't distort the content.

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