Apple reseller's law suit threatens internet freedom in Greece

As I write this Greek users of Twitter are flooding the micro - blogging service with comments and complaints about the Apple reseller in Greece, Systemgraph. According to the newspaper Protothema, a Greek internet user is being sued for 200,000 euros by the company following complaints  he made online about how his attempts to get his imac repaired went awry.

In his post blogger Arkoudos wrote that Dimitris Papadimitriadis, a 35 year old doctor, took his computer to be repaired by the authorised service provider, Systemgraph when he saw that shadowy areas on the screen. The company identified and claimed to have repaired the issue, however, when Papadimitriadis realised that the problem had not been fixed he returned his machine once more and then his troubles began in earnest.

On the other hand Systemgraph stated in their defence that the customer had been "rude and aggressive" and that the company had offered to repair the screen once more and was under no legal obligation to replace the machine (that being the responsibility of the store that had sold the computer). According to their statement on the AV Club forum the law suit was in response to an "organised attempt to slander and insult" the company via social media sites, blogs and forums.

This case in disturbing on two levels. Most importantly is the idea that any unwanted or disagreeble comment made on the internet can be punished with massive fines or the threat of legal action. As Papadimitriadis puts it on Twitter, "If the blogger/consumer loses (the case), then all we will be able to write in our own name will be recipes".

The Greek state been wary of internet and especially the blogosphere since its inception. In 2006 Antonis Tsiropoulos, site adminstrator for the Blogme aggregation service was arrested for hosting negative comments concerning a prominent TV personality and ultra - nationalist. In a similar vein the conservative New Democracy government attempted to introduce legislation that would strip Greek internet users of the right to blog anonymously in 2009.

Also what the case highlights is just how weak consumer protection is in Greece and that buying any big ticket item involves a risk which most other European consumers do not have to factor in. Even when the guarantee is valid some companies are loathed to accept the costs involved with repairing or replacing faulty goods. Of course, the consumer can insist on their rights as Papadimitriadis said he did when he took his case to the consumer ombudsman but this can be a long and often futile affair and even if the courts find in favour of the customer businesses can just chose to ignore the decision.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the case are the uproar which is currently being generated on the internet via Twitter and blogs shows that consumers do have the power retailers think carefully about how they are preceived online and remind them of the power of negative word of mouth.

Yesterday's conference on blogging and journalism - Thessaloniki, Greece

Today's conference on blogging and journalism - Thessaloniki, Greece, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

At the conference on blogging and journalism here at the Olympion cinema – first presentation was research on how Greek internet users view blogs in general and a source of news in particular. It seems that those on the internet (70+%) visit blogs regularly and many of them just under ¾ a reasonably accurate source of news.

Looks like the idea of anonymity will be discussed again, the idea that putting your name on a story is automatically better than remaining anonymous, the argument being that newspapers and other media are constantly faced by the threat of being sued for writing something that maybe be considered untrue.

However, there has been a number of cases in which newspapers and TV stations have quite happily spashed the images and names the six people arrested, allegedly involved in recent terrorist attacks. Defying the country's established codes of ethics the names and pictures of the detainees have been shown repeatedly on the country's TV screens and newspapers. Reporters have even dispensed with words such as “alleged” and “suspects” and simply referred to them as “terrorists”. Without trial, in some cases without even being charged the major TV channels had already decided that those detained were indeed guilty.

The overage has been so one sided that according to the Active media blog many journalist are demanding the Greek Press Council condemn these practices.

The mainstream media has simply broadcast, without any form of critical analysis the police's official reports or leaks concerning the case. In the UK or USA such coverage would be deemed enough to cause a mistrial as any kind of competent trial lawyer would argue that his/her clients would not receive a fair trial.

Thomas is speaking in defence of blogs, his main argument is that while many blog are indeed full of inaccuracies and groundless rumours the mainstream media is rife with such “news items”. If their beef with blogs is their level of professionalism and attention to details they are skating on thin ice. One only has to recall the case of the “visit” of Turkish PM to Greece last year. Despite the fact that the visit was called off on a Friday the Sunday newspapers Vima, Ethnos etc covered the event in great detail in their Sunday editions complete with pictures, quotes and analysis.

On the other hand we have Wikileaks, which Thomas is talking about now, as an example of how anonymity is sometimes necessary to cover stories governments and large, powerful organisations want to keep secret.

According to Thomas the most important thing is credibility in that just because a story or accusation appears on a blog means nothing unless that site has established itself as a credible source. He also argues in many respect TV news has lost ground in that it has ceased to be a trustworthy news source, at least according to the survey with just 1% of internet users considering TV the most reliable medium.

Once again none in the audience, myself excepted, seemed to be utlising any form of technology invented after the ball point pen. Instead they all just scribbled down notes on paper and seemed to havea particular weakness for any kind of stat.

Update

I enjoyd the debate even f I didn't agree with much of what was said, though saying that the criticism made by the panel were well thought out and not just knee - jerk reactions to change. Unfortunately, I can not say the same of the Q&A session which followed. The questions pitched ranged from the inane to the incoherent. It seemed many of those budding journalists present had a hard time putting together a coherent utterence, god knows how they're going to cope with whole paragraphs.

Bloggers who write anonymously were even compared with masked hoodies who attack and firebomb banks in that they wished to hide their identity, which gives a pretty good idea of how low the intellectual content of much of the audience's contribution. It was a shame as there are plenty of serious issues concerning the changing role of the media and The People Formerly Known as the Audience.

It's a brave new world forming on the internet but anyone who believes that the sins and faults of the past will magically disappear with the advent of mass participation in the creation of the news is likely to be disappointed.

Help Viva Palestina - send a email to the Egyptian government

At this moment the Viva Palestina aid convoy lies stranded on the Egyptian-Jordanian border (follow their progress on Twitter) unable to proceed with the delivery of much needed humanitarian aid as the Egyptian government has so far refused the hundreds of volunteers who've raised thousands of pounds in order to buy medical and educational supplies entry.

Please feel free to copy the template below and send an email to your local Egyptian embassy or consulate. For those in the UK:

eg.emb_london@mfa.gov.eg


To the people and government of the Arab Republic of Egypt,

I, like many others around the world, have been following the progress of the Viva Palestina humanitarian aid convoy as it has made its way from countries such as the United States, Great Britain, Turkey and Malaysia in order to bring medical and educational supplies to those in need in the Gaza Strip. I would like to call upon the Egyptian people to alllow the convoy to enter their territory and so complete their mission to help the Palestinian people.

Yours faithfully

****************

For those in other locations a complete list of Egyptian embassies can be found here.