Athens IMC and 98FM radio station are under repression by the State
10/4/2013 – The deanery of NTUA (National Technical University of Athens, more commonly known as Athens Polytechnic School) loses the trial against EETT’s (Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission) lawsuit related to past broadcasting of the Radiozones of Subversive Expression at 98.1fm from the NTUA premises, as well as about the broadcasts of “Radio Entasi” that occasionally emits from an adjoining terrace near the frequency of the mainstream radio station “SKAI”. It’s another procedural repression attempt that is added to precedent persecutions against Athens Indymedia and Radiozones of Subversive Expression.
11/4/2013 – The dean (rector) takes the initiative to cut off the power supply to “Radio Entasi”. At the same time, the internet connection for both Athens Indymedia and Radiozones of Subversive Expression is interrupted despite the fact that the Radiozones broadcast at 93.8fm, a frequency totally separated to the case file. How the lost court case on radio emissions has developed into the silencing of all online counter-information media based on the NTUA campus remains unknown.
Instead of any prosecuting motion by a district attorney, the dean of NTUA, Simos Simopoulos, used the maneuver of an internal rule of NTUA which requires all internet provisions (IP) to correspond to named individuals, so that he could ban the internet provision. Naming individuals for the station’s or indymedia’s server, which are self-organized and non person-centered ventures, would lead to state prosecution or fascist and parastate attacks against those individuals. Meanwhile, the student union of the Chemical Engineers faculty undertook the responsibility for these ventures six months ago, stating by signature the union’s name for these internet provisions alongside other political groups. The related document was conveniently declared lost or inexistent.
12/4/2013 – The “disappeared”, according to the rector authority, document issued by the Chemical Engineers union was resubmitted to the dean of NTUA, reaffirming its support to the freedom of expression within the institution. The same day the dean called the union representatives to give explanations about their position. The head of the Chemical Engineer’s faculty called the administrative council to confirm their persistence to their signatures and then delivered the document to the dean. At the same time, a manifestation called by both counter-information media and the Self-organized Collective of NTUA took place and was supported by hundreds of solidarians outside the deanery’s building. Late in the night, it was announced that Simopoulos doesn’t accept the students’ council demand and insists upon his decision for silencing the Radiozones of Subversive Expression and Athens Indymedia.
15/4/2013 – Solidarians occupied the building of Economic Services and the building of the Center of Network Infrastructures of NTUA. Dean Simopoulos denied his responsibilities, delivering his authority to the vice-dean, Mrs Moropoulou, who refused this authorization. Radiozones of Subversive Expression started broadcasting from the deanery’s building and after a short period of time an internet shutdown took place in the entire NTUA campus. In the afternoon, solidarians left all the occupied buildings in immaculate condition and called to another manifestation for next morning at the NTUA campus.
SILENCING DOES NOT LEAD TO INACTIVITY
Let’s not deal with the issue in a technical way. There is no use of introducing more patents, other broadcasting points, or compromises. We do not perceive the academic asylum and its main core –the free movement of ideas– in a utilitarian way, because in this way we would pave the road for domination. What is at stake is neither the function of certain counter-information media, nor some student liberties. What we are witnessing is the bullying comeback of a cast of authoritarianism ideologists who incarnate Power and the forces of repression. So, this is not solely about anarchists or leftists, or progressives.
We speak about the main principle of the freedom of ideas, a movement of ideas that has been shackled by business elite that holds almost all Media. This regime is supported by a tight legal framework that prohibits any contrary attempt of information with riot police and imprisonments, if it is not integrated in one way or another into the –ostensible– rules of their game. Calling their rules ostensible is not by chance, as today the vast majority of corporate radio and television stations are not even licensed. The continuation of their transmission is based on a network of corresponding servicing profits and power relationships.
For 10 years, Radiozones of Subversive Expression have been yet another target of domination; from the prosecutions by the state organization EETT and the broadcasting of a parastate radio station (“FREE FM”) on the same frequency, to the velvet silencing by the university authorities. The deanery reveals its real position by adopting an obstructive policy of supposed neutrality. It presents itself as a victim who is being persecuted because of its support to the freedom of expression, while at the same time it cuts off the internet supply to counter-information media that lodge in the NTUA. There is no use in ignoring the fact that the vast majority of counter-information structures now function through the university shelter. We believe that it is not an exaggeration to say that counter-information structures are beyond the scope of the student community, and diffuse antagonist discourse while they meaningfully socialize a shelter that over the past few years has deliberately lost its true meaning.
All of us, who administrate, publish or use the aforementioned media, and also all people who feel solidarity to the right of unmediated expression, do not accept to seek alternatives in radio or internet broadcasting at some other more hospitable place. The week ahead will not find an institution dwelling in normality, nor both media broadcasting from another place on the planet. If the State wants to muzzle the counter-information media, it should leave aside its academic puppets and take the political cost of a police intervention inside the National Technical University of Athens.
We call everyone who is against the modern dictatorship for a week of solidarity actions, from 15 to 21 April 2013.
WHEN THEY IMPOSE SILENCING, SILENCE IS COMPLICITY
Radiozones of Subversive Expression
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