Spiros Karatzaferis, a television presenter, became the latest journalist to face police action in the early hours of Wednesday morning when he was arrested hours after promising to reveal hacked treasury documents that would show Greek officials had systematically deceived the International Monetary Fund about the true state of the economy.
Mr Karatzaferis is the second high profile journalist to be arrested in a week, while a state broadcaster separately sacked two of his rivals for discussing other allegations against the government.
Kostas Vaxevanis, the first journalist arrested, faces court on Thursday morning on a charge of violating privacy laws for publishing the names of overseas bank account holders.
Mr Vaxevanis faces two years in prison for publishing the names and occupations of more than 2,000 Greeks allegedly holding accounts at the Swiss branch of HSBC.
Mr Vaxevanis told the Daily Telegraph that he was being sacrificed by a government manoeuvring behind the scenes to protect an unholy establishment alliance. "This is a selective prosecution," he said. "There is no Greek who believes that I am going [on] trial tomorrow, rather, it is the right that Greeks have to freedom of the press and the right to rock the system. Greece is run by a closed oligarchy of businessmen, politicians and controlled media groups. My publication of the list marked a confrontation, an extreme confrontation. » | Damien McElroy, Anthee Carassava in Athens | Wednesday, October 31, 2012
