Journalists’ unions condemn attack on Greek radio reporter at Feb 4 rally

The International and European federations of journalists (IFJ and EFJ) on Monday condemned a violent assault on a freelance radio journalist, Dimitris Perros, while he was covering a large anti-austerity rally in downtown Athens on February 4 for the Athens 984 FM radio station.

Greek journalist’s union ESIEA reported that Perros was approached by a group of men on central Panepistimiou Street and asked whether he was a journalist. When he replied in the positive, they proceeded to hit him with wooden sticks on the head and back, causing extensive injuries.

“We stand in solidarity with our Greek colleagues and call upon the authorities to immediately condemn this brutal attack to journalist Demitrios Perros and to open a prompt investigation in order to find and punish the perpetrators,” said IFJ President Jim Boumelha in an announcement on Monday.

EFJ head Mogens Blicher Bjerregard, added that “it is in the public interest for journalists to cover public events like this to inform the citizens about government policy debate.”

Both organizations will be submitting the case to the Council of Europe Platform for the protection of journalists and journalism.

ESIEA has also called for an investigation into the attack.