On July 19 2010, a fatal attack on not only an innocent journalist was made, but an attack against Greek media. Just outside of his home in Athens, investigative journalist Sokratis Giolias was shot dead, allegedly by leftist militants.
Mr Giolias was head of news at private Athens radio station Thema FM, and wrote on a popular news blog, called Troktiko.
“Somebody wanted to silence a very good investigative reporter who had stepped on a lot of toes with his stories,” said Panos Sobolos, president of the Athens journalists’ union.
According to colleagues, he had been about to publish the results of an investigation into corruption. Police said ballistics tests tied the killers’ guns to previous attacks by the Sect of Revolutionaries. They had initially discounted the idea that leftist militants might have killed Mr Giolias.
“The ballistic investigation showed that the guns used in the assassination today… have been used in attacks claimed by the Sect of Revolutionaries,” police said in a statement.
The Sect of Revolutionaries (SR) threatened members of the media only a year prior, attacking the headquarters of private broadcaster Alter TV, without causing any injuries.
Giolias’ death was the first assassination of a journalist in Greece since the mid-1980’s, when Greek guerrilla group ‘Revolutionary Organization 17 November’ assassinated two conservative newspaper publishers: George Athanasiadis (Vradyni daily) in 1983 and Nikos Morferatos (Apogevmatini daily) in 1985.
