Greek journalists were ‘coached’ by IMF to report with pro-austerity bias – ex-envoy – Veterans Today

.















AFP Photo / Saul LoebAFP Photo / Saul Loeb

The Greek authorities want to investigate alleged misconduct by a number of journalists who attended seminars organized by the IMF and were allegedly instructed to promote the organization’s advice to Greece.

The accusations were voiced by Greece’s former representative to the International Monetary Fund Panagiotis Roumeliotis, who testified Tuesday in front of a special parliamentary committee on the country’s debt. Newspaper Proto Thema published excerpts from the testimony on its website.

Roumeliotis was cited as saying that he accidentally bumped into Greek journalists during a visit to Washington DC, who told him that they were attending a seminar organized by the IMF. The fund held a number of similar events in the US and in Greece with the goal of explaining its operations and apparently was spinning its work positively, he said.

Read more

The former Greek official endorsed criticism by committee member Leonidas Vatikiotis, who said that the seminars were held in an opaque manner and that the journalists afterward became “mouthpieces of the IMF, preachers of austerity, opponents of strikes and public workers.”

The committee said the Greek parliament should demand to know from the IMF who exactly attended the seminars and what they were told there. It also said the Greek journalists’ union ESIEA should be asked to comment on a possible breach of professional ethics.

Only one allegedly IMF-coached reporter has been identified so far – television journalist Yiannis Pretenteris, who, according to Greek Parliament President and committee chair Zoe Konstantopoulou, admitted to going to IMF seminars in a book.

The current Greek government came to power on the promise to pull the country out of painful austerity policies advocated by foreign creditors, including the IMF. Athens is currently engaged in a difficult negotiation with the fund, and is asking to postpone due payment of its debt.

facebookfacebooktwittertwittergoogle_plusgoogle_plusredditredditpinterestpinterestlinkedinlinkedinmailmail

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts

The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT, VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians, or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. LEGAL NOTICECOMMENT POLICY









Posted by
on June 19, 2015,

With
0
Reads,

Filed under Economy.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.








FaceBook Comments







One Response to “Greek journalists were ‘coached’ by IMF to report with pro-austerity bias – ex-envoy









  1. All journalists so called are “coached”by the bankster gangster outfit and or their puppets.




You must be logged in to post a comment

Login





TOP 50 READ ARTICLES THIS WEEK


Source Article from http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/06/19/greek-journalists-were-coached-by-imf-to-report-with-pro-austerity-bias-ex-envoy/

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes