Editorial: Ethos

The answer to the question that Ta Nea has asked has been given: the government’s downward slide is endless.

Hateful, aggressive and delirious rhetoric is now the dominant language of power.

The country has a government that finds it impossible to express itself institutionally and shows contempt for the fundamental principles of public dialogue.

The government spokesman passed the baton to the head of the PM’s press office, and the “garbage dump” [ a reference to this media group] gave way to “dead souls that write idiotic things in there”, to “batteries of chemical and biological warfare”, and to “artillery batteries of death”.

Ta Nea could reply very easily. We are writers and know very well the art of verbal warfare, even dirty warfare, such as that which the government has declared.

We choose not to do so, firstly because we refuse to follow the same downward slide. Secondly, we will not stop hoping that the government will rise to the occasion and respect the mission for which the Greek people elected it.

We hope that it will at long last understand that it was not elected to check, shut down, or threaten the press, nor to spew invective at anyone who disagrees with it or insists on doing their work.

It is crystal clear now that the government’s invective is a result of its anti-democratic ethos, which alarms us as regards its impact on the country.

We, personally, have nothing to fear.