Celebrations last night in Athens, Greece (top) and a column on Saturday from Stephen Collins, Irish Times Political Editor
It’s Oxi Monday.
Greece has rejected spin, bullying and extreme media bias.
Dr Julien Mercille writes:
It is now clear that the NO side has won the referendum in Greece by a substantial margin of 61% to 39% for the YES side. Therefore, the Greek people have rejected the bailout offer from their creditors and associated austerity conditions.
What this does for now is to give a democratic mandate to Syriza to negotiate for a better bailout package with European authorities, which may now involve some debt relief. It remains to be seen to what extent the creditors will be influenced by the referendum’s outcome, however.
The result is a tremendous victory for ordinary people over European elites in every capital, who have tried to bully the Greeks into accepting more austerity while piling up more debts on their shoulders.
The arrogance of power was visible all along. As it became clear that the NO side would win, Brian Hayes, the Fine Gael MEP, called on Syriza’s leaders to “ditch their aggressive, provocative language”. Nevermind that it is the troika, not Syriza, that has inflicted pain on Greece.
It is also important to observe that even if heralded as a great democratic moment, the referendum could only be partially considered as such. Democracy is supposed to refer to the expression of one’s opinion as coming out of a free exchange of ideas and discussion about a subject. There isn’t supposed to be blackmail in that process.
But this is what the Greeks have endured in the days before the vote and before.
First, shortly after Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, announced that a referendum would be held, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to restrain credit to Greece, forcing its banks to close and pushing the country deeper into crisis, a move that has been widely recognized as financial blackmail. And the troika has always been opposed to Syriza. Earlier, in February, the ECB had cut off its main credit line to Greek banks in a move difficult to justify on economic grounds.
Second, this has been compounded by the last five years of drastic austerity implemented in Greece, resulting in a deterioration of the economy and social fabric. Effectively, Greece is now faced with a humanitarian crisis. Voting in such a situation of fear and desperation is not exactly one’s idea of ideal democracy.
Third, the Greek and European media have been hysterically in favour of a YES vote, repeating ad nauseam that a NO vote would lead to catastrophe. That’s not a balanced and open discussion of the issues, it’s mere propaganda.
For example, the Irish Times’ weekend edition had four opinion pieces on Greece. Three were clearly in favour of a YES vote.
Alan Ahearne, the right wing economist who was adviser to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan in 2009-11 when austerity package was rolled out in Ireland, had a piece criticising Syriza for supposedly being guilty of weakening the Greek economy which allegedly was doing great before it came to power. Nevermind that it is the troika austerity policies enacted by the governments that preceded Syriza that crashed the economy.
Recall that Ahearne, not so long ago, authored a report entitled “Condoms and House Prices: The Irish Experience”. In it he claimed that contraception was a “major factor” in pushing up house prices to such high levels.
Ahearne also praised NAMA as a “bold and radical action” and “a proven way of solving banking crises” because it “protects taxpayers”. He also said that austerity was “necessary in countries with large fiscal deficits”, especially in Ireland.
Does it matter to the Irish Times that this record turned out to be wrong on every count? Not at all, it seems, as Ahearne still gets his op-eds accepted for publication.
John Bruton, the former Fine Gael Prime Minister, also had an article trying to discredit the views of Nobel Prize winning economists Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, who both advocated a NO vote.
In the third article, Stephen Collins talked about Syriza’s “juvenile behaviour” which he said was “risking the future of the Greek people”, something which apparently “throws a favorable light on the behavior of mainstream Irish politicians” who he claimed have done the right thing here during the financial crisis (nevermind the policy of austerity). He also says that the last bailout to Greece gave it “the most generous lending conditions ever”, but nevermind the fact that the country has been plunged into a humanitarian crisis.
The fourth piece was by Diarmaid Ferriter, and is supposed to give the balance needed by adopting a position more supportive of Greece. But when you read the piece, it is so mild that you wonder if anybody would be convinced by it. Indeed, it talked about the role of a Cork man in Greece’s war of independence in 1801, whose relevance to the current referendum is beyond me. It also discussed a few things said by the Irish government about Greece in the 1970s, whose relevance again escapes me.
The idea of “balance” in journalism is always brought up by the mainstream media to pretend they are objective and impartial. However, this is problematic for two main reasons.
First, it is not true. The mainstream media is very biased towards the interests of those in power and is not balanced at all. That’s why you see many right wing economists, financial “experts” and politicians from the austerity parties (Labour, Fine Gael, Fianna Fail) writing and talking in newspapers and on the radio and television. However, you very rarely see trade unionists and members of progressive organisations allowed to do the same.
Second, the goal of journalism should not be to reach some kind of mystical “balance”, but simply, to tell the truth. For example, austerity applied in an economic downturn is anti-growth: so just say it like that.
How ridiculous the idea of “balance” is can be understood with a number of examples. Imagine we had a referendum about whether or not to grant the right to vote to women (if they didn’t have it). Would we then really hope to have 50% of news pieces giving us all the supposed arguments why women are too stupid, irresponsible, immature and emotional to get the right to vote? No, we’d just want to be told that women should be able to vote.
It’s the same thing for any other topic. When the subject is inherently debatable, fine, we should aim for “balance”. But there are so many important issues that are rather clear and which only require to be explained for what they are.
In any case, this time, the propaganda lost. But many other battles are coming up this week, as a deal still has not been struck with Greece.
@JulienMercille is lecturer at UCD and the author of The Political Economy and Media Coverage of the European Economic Crisis: The Case of Ireland (2015, Routledge). His new book, Europe’s Treasure Ireland (Palgrave), will be out this month.
“Third, the Greek and European media have been hysterically in favour of a YES vote, repeating ad nauseam that a NO vote would lead to catastrophe. That’s not a balanced and open discussion of the issues, it’s mere propaganda.”
Translation – Accurately representing the consequences of Yes vote and refusing to indulge Syriza’s demagoguery and irresponsible promises is propaganda.
So telling the Europeans where to get off is “demagoguery and irresponsible”? Take it you would be a Yes voter then who would be concerned about vile leftist propaganda?
But they claimed voting ‘no’ WASN’T telling the Europeans ‘where to get off’, that it wouldn’t threaten the financial system, Greece’s place in the euro, or the prospects for a new deal. All of which was manifestly false. I’m not a fan of what has been done to Greece or what’s gone down in the eurozone generally, but Syriza’s cynicism throughout has been epic.
Yeah that’s quite true Daragh, but “Europes” cynicism through out, has been more epic and far more deranged and thick from any economic stand point. Even the IMF go round to admitting what was going on was stupid and had no chance of success.
Yes, agreed. There’s plenty of blame to go around, and frankly debt relief should have happened years ago (as I’ve argued before). But Syriza’s ‘we voted that you should keep paying us, so why aren’t you abiding by democracy’ stance is difficult to stomach.
I don’t know if they (Syriza) are saying that, as it doesn’t really have any relevance, coz its not their money.
Personally, I take the view that they should be allowed to default and go back to the drachma, which is what should have happened in the first place.
However, given some of the gigantic egos, in play, you would have to wonder if anything sensible will come out of this.
The next couple of weeks should be interesting and instructive.
Agree re – default and drachma. But this whole ‘we want the euro, but we also don’t want to do anything unpleasant to stay in the euro’ is clearly BS.
So basically mcdowell agrees with syriza re debt relief. But doenst like the fact its syriza looking for it. You got to love the logical gymnastics of the right in all this.
The problem isnt the so called radical left gov in greece but the hard right bureaucrats and politicians in the institutions.
No Johnny – I agree with debt relief. I think the way Syriza has tried to achieve it has been staggeringly counterproductive and has made entire situation worse. And it looks like I’m right about that, as after the introduction of capital controls Greece’s entire banking system now appears to be utterly destroyed. Capital controls made necessary but an unnecessary referendum that also destroyed what little trust remained between the negotiators.
What would have been the consequences of a Yes vote, Marty?
No no. We can all vote away all of our debts tomorrow with a referenndumm. I’m voting AAA so I can have my mortgage and car loans written off! Welcome to the consequence free future :-^
I loved the bit where John Bruton (annual pension €141,849) criticises Greece’s pension regime (average annual pension €9,996)
Greece struggles to fund its annual average pensions of €9,996 because the average retirement age is 57 (and in fairness to Joan, she is still working at 66).
Joan Burton =\= John Bruton…. but it is hard sometimes to tell the difference. I know, I get their ideologies mixed up all the time.
one made money from fattening cattle, the other is … oh
That’s dirty pool, man. Misogynistic claptrap.
According to the OECD, the average retirement age in Greece, for men, is 61,3 and for women is 60,3.
And, according to the small print, one can retire from the age of 59, if one has 37 years of contributions.
Here’s the link :
http://www.oecd.org/els/emp/ageingandemploymentpolicies-statisticsonaverageeffectiveageofretirement.htm
Funnily enough, 57 is the age at which John Bruton (not to be confused with Joan Burton) resigned from Dáil Éireann.
John Bruton has been on a massive ministerial pension since the 9 March 1982, when he was 34 years old. 34! (when the Fine Gael government of which he was Minister for Finance collapsed because he tried to tax children’s shoes). Last year, John Bruton received €141,000 as a pension, 33 years after first drawing his pension.
Why would anybody but a complete idiot, or somebody with a vested interest, take anything that rank hypocrite and parasite says condemning Greek pensions! Only in the incestuous comedy which passes as the back-slapping Irish media would a clown like Bruton be taken seriously. The Irish Times is not even looking well anymore because The Sunday Independent is so abysmal in every conceivable way. It is a partisan right-wing rag all on its own merits.
John Bruton is a m0r0n but that doesn’t mean the Greeks are taking the pi55 with their unsustainable pensions. If you want pension arrangements like that then you should be willing to fund them (and Greece is not willing).
+ Ahern, Cowan, Neary, Harney, Hanafin etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!
It’s increasingly clear that Mercille wants a media whereby only his viewpoints are represented.
Eh?
Do go on….
False dichotomy, projection… any other clichés you want to throw in to the mix?
“The result is a tremendous victory for ordinary people over European elites in every capital, who have tried to bully the Greeks into accepting more austerity while piling up more debts on their shoulders.”
Its only a tremendous victory if they stop kicking you in the arse, Mercille you silly sod!
Mercille has become a parody, he’s been assimilated by the socialists. He’s even using their terminology, the “elites”.
so there are no elites? it’s all in mercille’s head?
interesting . ..
When did his position change? He seems to be coming from the same place consistently, and, tbh, he’s not really said anything controversial here. If you think that ‘elites’ is a misnomer, you’re not paying attention, what do you think a ‘technocrat’ is? Do you think you could get people to shut up the way redacted did?
ECB cuts off funding to Greek banks in an attempt to bankrupt them and force Syzira out of power.
Democracy my a**e, Ireland should quit this dictatorship and regain some sense of independence.
Show me when or where this happened.
They’ve done it twice in the past 5 years, have you been asleep or just not paying attention?
Are you SERIOUS? The ECB is the only body providing money for the Greeks. The Greeks will not do anything to get a balanced budget and is demanding that the ECB continue to fund them. Then they court (bankrupt) Russia in order to gain leverage.
They are already bankrupt.
“The result is a tremendous victory for ordinary people over European elites in every capital”…seriously?
I have spent a lot of time for work purposes in Athens over the past 24 months working on a redevelopment project (the Hellinikon site) which would have provided tens of thousands of jobs in Athens and provided billions of euros in revenue to the Greek State. The entire project has been delayed since the new government came to power in January. Given the recent events and likelihood of Greece leaving the Euro, the future of the project is now in serious doubt. There is no way the site can be developed without international investors. How is yesterday’s vote a “victory” when all it does is dissuades international investment in a country which desperately needs it.
tens of thousands of jobs eh?
vote Yes to Jobs
50,000 jobs in fact.
Out of curiosity, 50,000 jobs doing what exactly.
The proposed €8 billion redevelopment of the 1,500 acre site (twice the size of Central Park) will include a thousand hotel rooms, high-rise residential tower, offices, shopping center, marina, aquarium and giant park.
Riiiight. So that’s the fire-sale privatisation of the former Athens airport that has been mired in controversy following an unfair bidding process that has been blocked by the Court of Audit and then put on ice when the corrupt government backing it was thrown out of office? Yeah, in your spare time when you’re not working on asset stripping austerity-terrorised countries you’re, what, a Fine Gael councillor?
nikkeboenjte’s doing the lords work you infidel
There was nothing unfair about the bidding process and in fact the appeal by the Prefecture was overturned by the Audit Council.
It all sounded pretty dodgy to me, you came on here preaching to the Greeks and now you’re moaning that you cant go to Athens to help strip the assets of a debt ridden country. Perhaps you should have gone to work for Redected instead?
If you knew anything about the project you would know that the lead partner of the consortium is a Greek development company. However, for an €8 billion development, international investors were also needed (in case you haven’t noticed bank finance is hard to come by in Greece at the moment). The site has been vacant since 2001 and the Greek State does not have the money to redevelop it. As mentioned the development will lead to 50,000 new jobs and significant on going revenue for the Greek State. In additional there will also be social house and a huge amount of recreational space for the people of Athens. How is that “stripping the assets”?
Also can you point out where I was “preaching to the Greeks”?
“The result is a tremendous victory for ordinary people over European elites in every capital, who have tried to bully the Greeks into accepting more austerity while piling up more debts on their shoulders.”
How is it a tremendous victory? So far, all we know is that they don’t like austerity. Nobody bloody likes it. Nobody has any idea what will happen now. This vote doesn’t change a whole lot really. While they may not like or want austerity, Greece still owes lots of money and needs lots more. So what happens now?
Ssh. Don’t be causing a fuss. Sure it’s none of our business. Haven’t we better things to be doing.
Does Mercille have a citation for this?
“First, shortly after Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, announced that a referendum would be held, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to restrain credit to Greece, forcing its banks to close and pushing the country deeper into crisis, a move that has been widely recognized as financial blackmail.”
Because my understanding was that the situation remained unchanged, the ECB did not restrain credit, what happened was the ECB refused to increase credit through the ELA scheme.
From IT today:
“Greek banks, which have been closed since last Monday and are due to reopen tomorrow, are on the brink of collapse, with collateral and deposits declining. The ECB froze the ELA limit it was providing to Greek banks at just under €89 billion last Sunday, but it may choose to take further action today.
Under its legal mandate, the ECB can provide emergency funding only to banks that are solvent.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/ecb-to-consider-whether-or-not-to-continue-financial-aid-to-greece-1.2274472
Banks are closed today, most likely as well as tomorrow too.
Not at the behest of the ECB.
Are you Dick Roche? Because you sound just like him with your jesuitical replies.
Ooh! Raw nerve?
Dismantle the EU (which should be called the EB – Empire Builder) and lets return to the EEC.
Now where did I put that brochure on holidays in Greece?
Yes dismantle the EU please!!
The EU should eject Greece once and for all. They are causing instability now and will continue to do so in the future, regardless of whatever debt relief deal is done. They are not going to pay back the other EU countries that supported them with eurobonds in 2012 so let them sink. It’s what they voted for.
Finally! Some people with some backbone!
People with backbone jump off cliffs and put themselves in hospital for the rest of their lives.
WTF use is a backbone if you’re mentally challenged before hand, or physically challenged afterwards.
Go on, tell us. You have plenty of experience of both I believe.
That’s the thing with you guys, you believe anything.
and understand nothing.
Oh do enlighten us please, great oracle of all that is true and wise.
steady on italia 90
what makes you think this guy gets sarcasm?
I understand why vassalage is pushed hard on us by moneyed folks, but why the rest are so eager to maintain it? Haven’t had enough beatings yet?
q
“How ridiculous the idea of “balance” is can be understood with a number of examples. Imagine we had a referendum about whether or not to grant the right to vote to women (if they didn’t have it). Would we then really hope to have 50% of news pieces giving us all the supposed arguments why women are too stupid, irresponsible, immature and emotional to get the right to vote? No, we’d just want to be told that women should be able to vote”
Just a sampler from the 1000 words of rhetoric , penned by some woolly , wannabe academic. Julien, such a thought provoking “example” has been used by you in the past , read previous BS comments, take note and do not rehash in future.
Julien, you do know that it is the people of Europe, that will have to pay, not the bloody elites that you keep on yapping about, oh and guess what those countries that will suffer most are a lot poorer than Greece. (Slovakia, Estonia). Your Monday morning yarn spins a web of school boy analysis. Am now bored by this click bait.
Julien is not qualified to write the pieces that he writes. I’m not sure why Broadsheet give him a soapbox. He has zero qualifications in this field.
+1
He’s not an academic if his “facts” follow his ideology and not the other way round.
If he was honest, he’d just run for the Dail with Sinn Fein and be done with it.
Did you have to work hard to become such a highly functioning braindead?
HA!
Still miffed at being called on your victim-blaming BS then.
Not really pet. I don’t see what you’re gaining by condoning a media circus into a few unfortunate deceased young kids. I guess being away from the circus your view is coloured by the U.S. aspects of the story. Last week for example three Irish folks were actually murdered by a Tunisian fruitcake and there wasn’t anything like the same level of hysteria
Yep.
Surprised you didn’t blame them for being drunk too.
Carry on. *waves*
“That’s why you see many right wing economists, financial “experts” and politicians from the austerity parties (Labour, Fine Gael, Fianna Fail) writing and talking in newspapers and on the radio and television. However, you very rarely see trade unionists and members of progressive organisations allowed to do the same.”
Is this a joke? The papers are full of op-eds or columnists with this background.
Also, more generally, if the Greek people are worried about either the banks going bust or the country exiting the Euro (how else should we view the constant withdrawal of deposits over the last 6 months since Syriza came to power), then why shouldn’t the ECB also be worried about such events taking place and so seeking to limit their exposure to them?
Julien Mercile complains about the lack of balance in a newspaper.
Then he says this:
“How ridiculous the idea of “balance” is can be understood with a number of examples. Imagine we had a referendum about whether or not to grant the right to vote to women (if they didn’t have it). Would we then really hope to have 50% of news pieces giving us all the supposed arguments why women are too stupid, irresponsible, immature and emotional to get the right to vote? No, we’d just want to be told that women should be able to vote.”
The difficulty for Julien Mercile is that maybe the Irish Times is following his line f thinking and believes balance is a nonsense when discussing stuff that is apparently self-evident. Maybe, the Irish Times thinks it is self-evident that Syriza are wrong and that voting no has done Greeks no good?
Julien appears to have the same problem that many academics suffer from: an inability to countenance that others opinions are different because of a different interpretation of the facts rather than a mental disordering as a result of power structures. To see the consequences of that, view Syriza’s peculiar negotiating style which has all the presussaive effect of a born again Christian shouting repent on O’Connell Street.
There has been an awful lot of crap about the lack of balance in the media in Greece and elsewhere over this referendum. Some short facts:
1) Syriza called the referendum themselves. They did not discuss it with anyone beforehand.
2) They chose the date of the referendum.
3) They chose the question to be asked.
4) They chose the way the question would be answered.
5) They did not establish an independent referendum commission like we have here, but used Government websites to put forward their version of the issues at hand and left it to the media to provide any counterbalance.
If Syriza wanted a more balanced debate, they could have framed a more straightforward question, given time for a proper debate or established a referendum commission. They did none of those things. Why?
“First, shortly after Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, announced that a referendum would be held, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to restrain credit to Greece, forcing its banks to close and pushing the country deeper into crisis, a move that has been widely recognized as financial blackmail.”
This is an incorrect portrayal of the facts. It was Tsipras who decided to put the question to a referendum AFTER the bailout had expired. Hence the restrain of credit.
The media here need to be called to account for their dissemination of ECB lies and half-truths. Anyone using social media were well able to glean from Greek social media contacts that the #OXI vote was going to be a resounding success; that there was very strong support for the Greek Government’s stance.
In actual fact:
On June 27/28 “” European Central Bank says it is not increasing emergency credit amid default fears””” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greece-debt-crisis-european-central-bank-says-it-is-not-increasing-emergency-credit-amid-default-fears-10351221.html
John Bruton’s huge pension needs to be abolished and a means test applied
he own’s a substantial farm of land close to Dunboyne, is he, in receipt of CAP
Payments, from the Dept of Agriculure under Single Payment and Area Aid Schemes
Has he other pensions from his term as EU Ambassador in Washington and
is still on the Board IFSC Authority if so what is he paid..?
What we have is a crowd of flunkies, telling us what a wonderful concept the
Euro grand plan is, what they don’t tell us, what it’s costing us, and what they are
being paid themselves, and especially all the special attention they get
Brussell’s is rotten to the core and the initial founder’s of what was to be a
Community, are turning in their graves, would Schuman or Monnet allow a train
of events, to have a 77 Old Age Pensioner in Greece laying on the street unable to collect his few Euros, and the sheer arrogrance of a Former Irish Prime Minister on 141 Thousand Euros telling us all that a pensioner in Greece is getting too much anyways…..as for Stephen Collins, he got his answer, incidently
is there not a need for diclousure what briefing the European Institutions do as they now call themselves, to get put in the media for gospel
Hitler realised that propoganda was more potent than lead and the Catholic
Church years before that, made a lot more use of it, than prayer.
Lots of twaddle about democracy and elites, but missing the point: the only people lending to Greece for the past 4 years are European states (democratically elected) and the IMF (funded by democratically elected states from all continents. Whatever about the IMF, negotiations on futile her money from Europe is a matter for 19 Ez states, not just one. Probably too much to expect a Canadian to follow. Does JM really think the Greek demos should be authorised to unilaterally dip their hand into the pockets of other taxpayers without a proper negotitiaton?
b