POPULAR GREEK PAPER THAT ECHOS SOVIET VIEWS FACES CHARGES OF WIRETAPPING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000201300014-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: October 9, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201300014-7
n -7 T- r, 7
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
9 October 1984
Popular Gm k paper that ethos Soviet views faces
By Leigh &uae
Specie to The Orsriai Scoznoe wcnitor
charges of wiretapping
Both the publisher and editor `'of
Greece's most popular newspaper; whose Ethnos asserted that the tape of the con-
editorial positions often closely resemble I versation as well as many others were
Soviet views, have been charged with provided to the newspaper by persons
-% retapping the telephones of a New York from Anastasiades's "group of agents."
Times correspondent. Although Anastasiades will appear as
The charges are the latest installment the injured party in the case, the charges
in the legal battle between Cypriot born ' were brought by the district attorney.
jotirnali-st Paul Anastasia es and the A release put out by Anastasiades as-
newspaper Ethnos, which began publica- serts that his lawyers "will raise the possi-
tion only one month before the 1981 elec bility that- persons acting under Soviet
toral victory of Greece's Socialites:- instructions were directly involved in the
In a 1983 book Mr Anastasiades de- wiretapping, so as to obtain material for
scribes Ethnos publisher George Bobolas use by Ethnos."
and editor Alexander Filipopoulos as Rumors of the paper's alleged links
KGB agents. In May an Athens appeal with Soviet in hence began to circulate
nowt, convicted 3Anastas;ades of AN soon after it began publication and culmi-
sen enced to. one 3Z'~' .p- - .. nated with the publication of
Anastasiades's book.
appeal to the Greek Supreme Court is ex- ! Ethnos editor Filipopoulos told a re-
petted to be heard in October. pv .`late' 1982 that the papet ivas `'an
But last week Athens district attorney
Inidas Lazarakos filed the wiretapping adding - $tlmos,
charges, basing them on a 1983 Ethnos ar- because of its No. I rating, has incurred
title that contained verbatim extracts of a the wrath of various political groups,
telephone conversation between failed politicians, and the press business
Ana. wires and a man identified by
Anastasiades as Athens lawyer Panayotis
Zotos. -
Anastasiades, who has confirmed that
the excerpts published in Ethnos are au- owes less to its political content than to its
ttentic, asserts that "we were discussing tabloid format and its features.
my book, but Ethnos gave its own inter- Although the paper has the largest cir-
pretation of the conversation." According culation in Greece with nearly 20 percent
to the Ethnos article, the conversation of newspaper sales, its real influence is
-was between two CIA agents planning to ! difficult to determine in -a countr
y where
destabilize Greek institutions and to ex-
tend "their destabil. activities too er
; , -
i. ump n countri
.. ~Z3-iLck&oduc:U=bTt 6-?J&5' IPtS,'
trust that sees its own defeat in Ethnos's
triumph." _
. The general consensus among press
total newspaper circulation is only
600,000, less than 10 percent of the popu-
lation of more than 9 million.
Nevertheless most observers `seem to
agree that in a country where politics are
the prime topic of conversation, the' larg-
i est n6vsp~per~esan at jl flavor the tone
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201300014-7