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Today:
"The propaganda of the jounta regime"
In this episode,the propaganda practices of the junta regime are presented, as well as the reactions to them.
Distinguished individuals from the world of arts and intellect speak about both the propaganda of the junta and the way an opposing discourse was formed within the dominant ideological framework that the dictatorship attempted to establish.
University professor Dimitris Maronitis discusses the way the junta used language, combining it with the first-time use of television. Using excerpts from Georgios Papadopoulos’ speeches, he deconstructs the spoken word as pseudo-ritualistic, messianic in tone, bombastic, and ultimately incoherent.
He highlights the regime's persistence in using naive or demeaning metaphors, such as the image of a nation in a "plaster cast," or the ship and its “captain” metaphor. The colonels’ rhetoric is described as magical in type, where speech dissolves meaning; its sound aims to captivate while ultimately disrupting the audience's logic.
Maronitis describes the restrictions on expression imposed on writers and on those detained by the regime. He also addresses the limits of speech and action and the issue of language as a medium of venting or preparing for political action.
He believes that the most honest response to the dictatorship’s rhetoric was to point out the boundaries of language, clarifying that while language might prepare political action, it is not the action itself. He explains that people rose against the junta as they did during the German Occupation, and he highlights Pavlos Zannas’ translation of Proust’s multi-volume In Search of Lost Time as a response to the regime’s linguistic crudeness and lack of cultural ethos.
In turn, Pavlos Zannas describes the initial silence of intellectuals against the junta’s preemptive censorship, followed by the formation of a new literary landscape through politically resonant translations. This allowed accomplished writers to survive and create a new publishing landscape.
He describes how, with the insistence and encouragement of Stratis Tsirkas, he began translating Proust's work.
He also refers to publications following the end of preemptive censorship, works expressing opposition to the junta that risked prosecution.
In July 1970, 18 Texts was published, followed a year later by New Texts and New Texts 2, with contributions from detained writers. Giorgos Seferis' statement about the junta is also noted for its significance.
Journalist Giorgos Romaos discusses the muzzling of the Greek press and the junta’s control of television and radio. He explains that newspapers were directed by the relevant ministry service, describing an era of guided journalism in which, however, some information, words, and photos slipped through.
He recalls the regime's harshness in the early days of the coup, using Eikones magazine as an example.
Romaos notes that despite this, Greeks bought newspapers as they were the only—albeit darkened—window to the outside world. He adds that the period following the end of preemptive censorship was not one of freedom, with continued interventions to ensure the regime's perspective was published, accompanied by warnings and threats to publishers.
However, he mentions that during the Polytechnic uprising, newspapers contributed to the anti-junta sentiment.
Art critic Eleni Vakalo explains that the junta didn’t exploit the visual arts because they failed to understand the significance of form in visual art. This ignorance allowed artists, critics, and gallery owners to use art as a vehicle for messages from form to symbol, in ways that couldn’t easily be accused of undermining the regime. Thus, a communication code with the public was established, gradually understood as an art of resistance.
Aristovoulos Manesis, professor of constitutional law, explains the junta’s fixation on legality, despite abolishing legality, attempting to appear legitimate in any way possible. He describes how the regime sought to win citizen consent through the constitution, aiming for popular approval or at least tolerance. He discusses the constitutions of the dictatorship, which functioned without ever being fully implemented, and recounts his own stance and his address to law students in Thessaloniki during one of the first anti-junta gatherings in January 1968.
Film critic Vassilis Rafailidis analyzes the junta’s newsreels as visualized propaganda, with anti-communism as the core message and the goal of promoting national loyalty. Rafailidis highlights the regime’s promotion of disciplined, controlled living to its citizens. He explains that the main propaganda tool of the junta was speeches, both formal and informal, and he describes other propaganda tools as laughable, such as the parades of military valor, where Greek history is depicted as culminating in Grammos-Vitsi.
Rafailidis also discusses television, which was initiated and shaped by the junta, focusing mainly on how programming was structured, with most airtime given to non-ideological shows, especially football. He briefly touches on cinema and the patriotic films made during the seven-year period.
Throughout the program, photographs, audio recordings, and front-page images of the time are presented, along with excerpts from junta newsreels, particularly from speeches by dictator Georgios Papadopoulos, and from military valor parades held at the Panathenaic Stadium.
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