‘On 12 December three members of SEK are to appear in court accused of “defamation” by a lawyer who is in the payroll of a Nazi Golden Dawn MP’, the on-line appeal for solidarity states. ‘Katerina Thoidou, journalist, Tasos Anastasiades, publisher and Panos Garganas, editor of Ergatiki Allileghii (Workers Solidarity, weekly paper of SEK) are to stand trial because articles in the paper exposed the neo-Nazi inspired campaign against the right of second generation immigrants to Greek citizenship. The law under which the members of SEK are accused is infamous in Greece as a “free press killer” law.’
‘At a time when a number of Golden Dawn MPs are in detention for their role in running a criminal organisation, this trial of anti-fascists is an outrage. It is also an attempt to muzzle Workers Solidarity, the paper of the Greek anti-capitalist left. According to the law, if the three are found guilty the minimum fine is 30,000 euros each. In a crisis-plagued Greek society this fine equals a death penalty for the paper.’
The picket, outside the Greek embassy, 1A Holland Park, London W11 3TP (Holland Park tube) from 1-2pm on Wednesday 11 December, is to show solidarity and show that people outside Greece are watching the tendency to authoritarian government and attacks on press freedom in Greece.