World Press Freedom Day: DW Director General visits Greece 

Peter Limbourg, director general of Deutsche Welle, met President Prokopis Pavlopoulos during a visit to Greece on May 3. On International Press Freedom Day, Limbourg presented the host with a new CD featuring DW radio broadcasts from the time of the military dictatorship in Greece. 

The Greeks still feel a deep connection with DW - and DW with the people who overcame the military dictatorship in 1974. Since then, many Greeks have remained loyal followers of the German foreign broadcaster and value it as a reliable source of information and voice of freedom. Today in Athens, Limbourg continued this tradition by presenting the CD. 

President Pavlopoulos: "On behalf of all Greeks, I would like to thank DW for being the voice of freedom and democracy from the heart of Europe during the dictatorship. But also for the constructive role it played during the financial crisis."

DW Director General Limbourg: "The Greek service of DW was the voice of freedom during the military dictatorship. Even more than 50 years later it is still an example of how important foreign broadcasting is when democracy is in danger."

The recordings come from the archive of the late writer and journalist Alexander Skinas, one of the main commentators of the Greek editorial team in the early 1970s. Two contributions by Giorgos Nikolaou, the then editor-in-chief, who later served as vice president of the European Parliament, are also on the audio document, among them a much-noticed interview with a penitent spy in the service of the junta, which was written shortly after the dictatorship was overcome.

For the head of DW's Greek service, Spiros Moskovou, the CD is a testament to the power of radio in Greece in that era. "It is very revealing to see how the colleagues then kept the balance between open condemnation of the regime and the standards of professional, independent journalism," Moskovou said.