Truth: A Lost Treasure 

How can you people not suffocate when you are forced to express others’ opinions and not your own? How can you people prefer to serve someone else’s interests and not your own, to put someone else’s priorities above yours? How can you keep sacrificing everything on the altar of money? But above all this, how is it that you do not feel ashamed or embarrassed by your actions and more importantly yourselves?

Media and mainly journalists during difficult times are supposed to help people, by providing information and spreading the truth across their country and to the world; the truth no matter the situation, no matter the pressure of external factors. And by saying the truth I mean as it is not completely misrepresented.

Journalism as a study focuses on the ways you can inform people and broadcast news but at the same time while being honest and putting an effort in order to carry out your duty with honor. Until now I thought that most journalists in Greece, like any other journalists in the world, were following these simple rules.

Probably I was wrong. No, probably is not the right word. For sure I was wrong. My dear journalists, TV presenters, and editors who abuse their authority and PEN… You make the business disgusting! You are unsuitable to inform and broadcast news to people. I thank God that I am abroad and I don’t have the ability to watch Greek channels. I truly feel lucky that I am experiencing this entire devastating situation from here, in Alexandria, Egypt.

How dare the Greek media frighten its citizens in such a harmful and cruel way? How dare you propagandize so unprovoked without feeling ashamed? As you can see anger is the only feeling I have at the moment. Why? Because every day I come one step closer to graduating from the National and Kapodistrian University, the Department of Journalism, and every day I come one step closer to one of the most corrupt and filthy professional sectors in Greece.

Real journalists are first of all humans. They should try to calm citizens down, to speak the truth in hard situations. But you corrupted journalists, you are only interested in manipulating as many citizens as you can to push them away from their real beliefs in order to cultivate new ones, closer or the same to yours. You people – the ones abusing their pen – should directly be removed from every media station and outlet. You don’t deserve your job; in fact, you deserve the worse punishment because of the psychological damage you cause and create to your audience.

As time passed, you probably forgot all your mortals and beliefs. Money and corruption are sweet, aren’t they? But believe me, truth and honesty taste even better. So please for the good of our country and its citizens, quit your jobs, ladies and gentleman, as soon as possible. Why don’t you move to a place as far away from Greece as possible and enjoy all your money together? Maybe some politicians would like to join you as well, as they are responsible for the situation and the crisis in Greece due to their unique ways of stealing money from the people and being as corrupt as they can.

Sometimes I think that many politicians in Greece were competing with each other in corruption and thieving. In any case, all of you have harmed Greece enough, don’t you think?

Every day people become more terrified; they don’t know what is going to happen next, and they believe that this is the end. These people and their children are going to starve for the next decades.

But this isn’t the truth. Because I am living abroad in this period, I have the chance to watch the news from international media and not Greek media and the only thing that comes to my mind is if citizens of my country had the same chance they wouldn’t be that frightened, that undetermined.

It’s time for you people to open your eyes and see the truth behind all these lies that are made up by the Greek media. It’s time to set you and your children free from the dictatorship that media imposes. Things aren’t always as they appear to be.

So far I hadn’t noticed it in such a direct way as I have now. Many journalists don’t speak the truth in my country anymore. I don’t know what they are trying to achieve, why they put so much effort in order to harm their own country. But one thing I am sure of is that whatever their goals, they have achieved one thing, and that is to frighten so many Greek citizens as if World War III is coming.

People don’t have the ability to understand the difference between false and true. They are no longer able to stand on their feet, to fight for their beliefs and morals.

Ultimately, what does truth mean nowadays? Who knows the truth? Who speaks it? In my country? Nobody, for sure. I am furious, depressed and disgusted from how the media acts in Greece! All that time they haven’t tried to prove to the people how much the economic crisis harmed Greece.

And now that Greece has a single chance to decide its future, they are trying to convince people (through the wrong means of course) that worse days are still ahead. Worse days have already come; things can’t be worse my dear journalists. While you are enjoying your money, people are starving on the streets, people are committing suicides because they can’t pay their financial obligations, families are separated, young people, scientists and students are leaving Greece. How worse can the situation become? We hit rock-bottom and there is nothing worse than a country losing its dignity.

So ladies and gentleman, this can be the end according to the Greek media, but it can also be a new start according to me and thousands of people who still struggle in order to let truth speak, who still set honesty as the most basic principle and aim of their lives.

No matter how hard times get, we should never give up. We should try as hard as we can to find the truth, to separate it from the lies, to let it shine, fight for it and by all means defend it.

“Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.” – Mahatma Gandhi

By: Georgia Gkolfi

Photography: Mahmoud Mansi

EDITOR: Nada Adel Sobhi