Drawing the tragedy

The Greek cartoonist Michael Kountouris delivers the second part of his opinions after the elections in that country. You can read the first part here.

Let’s return to the crisis. It is not only economic but also political and social, but mainly it is a systemic crisis, a crisis of values and principles, a crisis of culture, which is not only Greek but European as well.

In Greece, we are in shock and we don’t know when and how we will get over it. For this shock, this crisis, apart from the politicians, the mass media have great responsibilities too.

The media and press, having as owners big companies, building contractors and ship-owners, instead of speaking and informing the people, serve other’s interests. They lost their credibility and objectivity, they are scorned, and at the end they became a furious slogan of the Greek demonstrators: “Traitors!”

Many important Greek newspapers suspended publication, journalists were fired, TV channels stopped broadcasting, media companies collapsed. In this tornado, cartoonists in Greece live in difficult times. They lose their jobs, either because magazines or newspapers they work for are closing down, or because their work is considered a “luxury” for the newspapers. Or even, and this is the most disturbing reason, they are fired for censorship reasons.

The words I have written are too many for a cartoonist, so I prefer to end with some of my cartoons which have been published lately and refer to the European crisis and the situation in Greece.

Procartoonists.org thanks Michael for sharing his words and pictures here.