Kathimerini and Kokkalis
Many people ask, with mainly good intentions, what Kathimerini has got against Socrates Kokkalis. Others want to know if there is a war going on between entrepreneurs, and still others think our articles are the product of some sort of competition. Since this view has been deliberately put into circulation, Kathimerini is obliged to state once again that it has no argument with Kokkalis and Intracom. Our business interests do not coincide, and nothing beyond the interest of journalism motivates this newspaper. Kathimerini treats Kokkalis as the expression of a very specific state of affairs which has developed in the political and economic field in Greece over the past 20 years. It has been proved, and the everyday experience of Greeks shows, that what has been called «entangled interests» is highly problematic for the country and its citizens. The product it created during all those years is highly negative and costly; it also dangerously distorts how the economy and democracy function. The domination of this particular group of companies and the means used to do so have held politics hostage, undermined the spirit of competition, excluded some entrepreneurial forces and tied down others. Above all, they established a pattern of unethical relations among those involved, at a tremendous cost to the economy. In every aspect of public life there are similar arrangements on a smaller scale, giving the impression that Greece is dominated by large and small formations of entangled interests that tie it down and prevent it from moving ahead even though it has the capabilities for doing so. That is how this newspaper has treated and will treat the Kokkalis phenomenon. Neither a war of interests, nor any other business competition defines its stand. Besides, Kathimerini and its owners have no other domestic interests outside publishing. And its publishing activities are strictly limited, precisely so that no clash of interests affects its prestige and impartiality. This is one of the main reasons that it invested its available capital in shipping, an international activity free from domestic ties, to secure long-term economic and political independence. Any suggestions to the contrary are sheer malice that serves other purposes.
