H.E. Jorgos Voulgarakis
Minister of Public Order
Athens, Greece
Fax: +30 210 691 2661, +30 210 692 0487, +30 210 692 9764

H.E. Jorgos Orfanos
Derputy Minister of Culture (responsible for Sports)
Athens, Greece
Fax:+30 210 820 1373, +30 210 324 6085, +30 210 322 8831

Vienna, 3 October 2005

Your Excellencies,

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South East Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), is alarmed about the recent assault on another sports journalist in Greece.

According to information before SEEMO, on late Friday evening, 30 September 2005, Periklis Stellas, the sports journalist and director of the Thessaloniki branch of the sports daily newspaper Goal News, was attacked by an unknown person as he was leaving his office in the centre of Thessaloniki. The unknown person hit him several times in the head and face, leaving him with concussion, a fractured jaw bone and other minor injuries. The journalist was subsequently rushed to hospital. According to the police there were no eye witnesses to the attack.

We would like to remind your excellencies that this is the third attack on a sports journalist in Greece in the past ten months. In October 2004, sports journalist and head of the Sports Department of the Eleftherotypia daily newspaper, Philippos Syrigos, was attacked in the car park near the Super Sport FM radio station when walking to his car after a radio show. His attackers were two unidentified individuals wearing helmets, who hit him on the head with a metal bar and stabbed him several times in the back. The two perpetrators managed to escape. On 7 May 2005, Kostas Nikolakopoulos, a journalist for the sports daily Fos ton Sport and the radio station Super Sport FM, was attacked by four unknown men in front of his wife and two young daughters, only meters away from his home in Ilion, Athens. During the attack, Nikolakopoulos was repeatedly hit on the head and about the body with knuckledusters and iron bars. Once Nikolakopoulos had fallen to the ground, the men disappeared. Nikolakopoulos was later taken to a nearby hospital where he was treated for his injuries.

SEEMO regards these attacks as a very serious violation of press freedom and the rights of journalists. We ask Your Excellencies to start an investigation into this case and to take all necessary legal steps. We would like to remind Your Excellencies that a safe working environment for journalists is a fundamental principle in every democratic society.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Oliver Vujovic
SEEMO Secretary General

For any further information please contact:
SEEMO – IPI, Spiegelgasse 2/29, 1010 Vienna, Austria,
Tel (SEEMO+HELP LINE): +43 1 513 39 40, Tel (SEEMO): +43 1 512 90 11 11,
Fax: +43 1 512 90 15, E-mail: [email protected], Web: http://www.seemo.org