A Greek appellate court is set to revise a ruling by a local court in 2010 that imposed steep fines on two major newspapers of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace next week as press freedom supporters call on the court to overturn the sentences.
The case concerns the Gündem and Millet newspapers, which were ordered to pay 150,000 euros and 120,000 euros, respectively, to a local teacher who sued them in 2010. The dailies have said that the fine is too high for a minority paper. In a statement released on Monday, Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), agreed that the fines are excessive and said it hopes the court will revise its decision.
The case concerns a case filed against the two dailies by Greek teacher Hara Nikopoulou, who worked between 2005 and 2010 in a Turkish minority primary school in the village of Büyük Derbent (Megalo Derio). Nikopoulou allegedly asked the children to draw pictures of God. Both weeklies published a story about the incident, reporting that several of the children were Muslim and refused to comply with the teacher’s request and complained to their parents as Islam prohibits depictions of God.
The teacher subsequently sued both newspapers. The SEEMO statement said the Athens-based daily Eleftherotypia recalled in 2011 that the court had based its ruling on the fact that the story’s impact went beyond the local community as it was taken up by the Greek national media. Eleftherotypia noted that the law stipulates that for a national publication the minimum fine is 29,325 euros, while for a local one it is 5,865 Euros. In other words, the fines of 150,000 euros and 120,000 euros go far beyond the stipulated legal amounts, the statement said.
“I hope that the court in Komotini [northeastern Greece] will revise the previous decision concerning the fines,” SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said commenting on the case. “Such excessive fines can lead to silencing small media in general and minority media in particular. I think that this trial is a test of the willingness of the Greek authorities to respect media freedom and minority rights. In fact, since I attribute such importance to this case, my personal advisor, Jorgos Papadakis, will attend the trial on my behalf on Feb. 24,” he added.