Post date: May 08, 2012 5:4:22 PM
ATHENS, GREECE (MAY 6, 2012) (REUTERS) - Greek journalists on Tuesday (May 8) accused the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn party of intimidation after it became the first far-right group to enter parliament since military dictatorship ended.
The Greek journalists union decries bullying by Golden Dawn party after leader called journalists liars and media was told to stand in honour of ultra-nationalist party president.
At a news conference after securing seven percent of the vote on Sunday (May 6), Golden Dawn members ordered journalists to stand to attention for party leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos.
Many journalists left the room in protest.
Michaloliakos also marched down the street on Sunday flanked by muscular men with shaved heads and tight t-shirts, yelling "liars!" at the foreign journalists following him.
"The channels and the dirty conspiracy against the nationalists, in all over Greece, in all over the world. You are liars against the nationalism. You must be ashamed for all your lies," he said.
At the news conference a Golden Dawn member standing at the door is heard saying: "Please when the leader arrives you must stand as a show of respect for the leader" as he is addressing the people in the room. A journalist in the room shouts back, "We came to cover an event".
The member responds: "Whoever does not want to comply with this can go outside".
When Michaliolakos arrives, the same member shouts: "Rise! Everyone rise as a show of respect!" gesturing with his hand and moving towards the people in the room to make them stand.
The journalist who refused is then told to leave. She is heard saying to Michaliolakos: "They have asked that we all stand up when you arrived and we believe this insults us".
Michaliolakos responds by telling her to "Take a hike".
"The Greek Federation of Journalists (POESY) warns Hitler nostalgics and especially the 'brave boys in black t-shirts' that no journalist will be coerced, threatened and above all terrorised," the union said in a statement.
The Athens Union of Journalists (ESIEA) said: "Acting like bouncers, they showed their true colours. We are not afraid of you. We will reveal your role. You will not have your way."
Promising to rid Greece of immigrants and with a symbol resembling the swastika as its logo, Golden Dawn is the first such party to enter parliament since the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974.
"If anyone should be scared, it is not those who are being threatened but those who do not respect democracy," the POESY association said in the statement, the first public condemnation of the group since its victory.
Giving orders like "stand up" and "shut up" were dangerous for the country's democratic institutions and culture and would not be tolerated, the association said.
"Journalists only obey the country's constitution, their democratic conscience and the ethics code."
Golden Dawn, which denies that it is neo-Nazi, rose from obscurity to winning 21 seats in parliament in just over a year by appealing to Greeks who feel that a rise in crime driven by five years of recession has made the streets unsafe.
Pledging to "clean up" Greece by expelling all legal and illegal immigrants, the party has won voters worried about rising crime levels at a time of deep recession. The group was more known for their street 'security' patrols in immigrant populated neighbourhoods and clashing with immigrants before the vote.
In its pre-election campaign, Golden Dawn members went from door to door in rundown Athens neighbourhoods, delivering food parcels to poor families or escorting elderly women to cash machines.
Many Greeks were shocked by its success, also fuelled in part by anger with the two parties that have been in power for decades and led Greece into its debt crisis: the conservative New Democracy and the socialist PASOK.
In the last election, it took just 0.23 percent of the vote.