The Greek Tourism Organization (EOT) has released a rebuttal of the criticism it has received over the video ‘Gods, Myths, Heroes,’ that it released to celebrate 100 years of tourism.
And much like the video itself, the press release is poorly conceived, shoddily put together and riddled with errors. Instead of showing contrition, EOT is boldly asserting that the emperor is in fact wearing a nice pair of trousers.
Showing a devotion to the concept of ‘myths’ that even the ancient Greeks would find borderline obsessive, the press release sets about debunking the supposed ‘myths’ that have been reported in the press, including this site, about the video.
The only problem is that these are not myths at all, as a careful reading of the ‘debunking’ will show. In short, the Tourism Organization, now in a hole over the issue, is continuing to dig.
Debunking the ‘debunking’
The release begins to address the first ‘myth’ and ‘outrageous lie’ which according to the organization is that, “EOT uses film in which Hitler appears to advertise Greek tourism.”
This is rather nonsensical given that no remotely seriously article alleged that Hitler appeared in the film.
What is true is that the original video had a shot of an Olympic torch bearer from the 1936 Olympics. When that was condemned by the international press, the embarrassed EOT ordered a reedit of the film to remove the offending shot – a reedit that would not have been necessary had the film-makers been paying a rudimentary degree of attention to the footage that they were lifting blithely from a 2012 Olympic tribute film.
Yet now instead of merely sticking with its earlier apology, EOT has decided to go on the attack over the issue setting up a Hitler-shaped straw man and tearing it down in indignation.
‘Myth’ 2: the unlicensed footage
Here things get even more interesting as EOT tries desperately to come up with a few fig-leaves to cover the crime of a 70,000 euro state-sanctioned production pirating unlicensed material as if Youtube was its own private stock library.
It calls the allegation that there was unlicensed material in the video an ‘inaccuracy’. To back up its argument, the organization effectively cites the contract it signed with the producers.
EOT writes, ‘In any event, to EOT, on the basis of the contract, is granted from every production company the sum of the intellectual and related rights of the material… for unlimited uses in any medium for an unlimited period.”
While there is no doubt that such a contract exists, the production company can obviously only grant usage rights it actually owns or has purchased.
In this case for a number of shots, the production company didn’t bother to secure the required licenses, either out of laziness or the desire to save a few euros, hoping that no one would notice. It even appears that they may have scrubbed out certain key watermarks.
EOT’s press release even directly names one of the photographers whose material was used without permission, Stian Rekdal, saying that EOT had received assurances from the director, Antonis Kioukas, that these shots, ‘are free to be shown by EOT’.
But, at least until yesterday that was clearly not the case. Now EOT appears to have secured the rights after the fact. As Rekdal writes about the issue in a comment on his Facebook page published today, “I'll be diplomatic and say: The material IS licensed. Now.”
So it appears the producers only took the trouble to obtain the proper licenses after it was reported by the media.
Meanwhile as for the other photographer, Alek Cherney whose starry timelapse of an Australian beach was also used without permission, his name is notably absent from the press release. As it is from the credits of the video.
Which brings us to
‘Myth’ 3: an Australian beach is portrayed as a Greek one.
EOT calls this accusation ‘a distortion’ and then performs some remarkable logical contortions of its own to support its position:
“The video is a dramatized narration which concerns a presentation of Greece from a familiar perspective to all humanity, mythology, the Gods, the heroes and all those elements that Greece ‘gave’ to humanity. The artistic director and director of the production, A. Kiokas, explains that in line with the narration of the specific scene, a shot from Australia was consciously used, the shot of the starry sky, in order to support artistically that which is being described by the narrator. That in almost the entire globe, no matter where you turn your gaze you will meet an idea, a name which is descended from Greece. Even in the sky of Australia, in the southern hemisphere, the artistic director explains, when you raise your gaze up, you will see the stars and constellations which carry Greek names. The mythology of Ouranos (the sky), in all lengths and breadths of the Earth is Greek.”
There is little to say about this paragraph other than that it may well be the most ‘creative’ contribution Mr Kioukas has yet offered EOT.
For one, it rings utterly hollow if one goes back and actually watches the starry time-lapse in the context of the video and the narration (see from the 5.20 mark where the beach is clearly presented as Greek, with no signifier whatsoever that it is Australian). Furthermore the comment is also offensive to Aborigines, Hindus, Native Americans, South Americans, Scandinavians to name just a few of the other peoples who have their own myths and traditions about the stars above their heads.
Myth 4: the film cost 1.3 million euros.
EOT is right here that the film did not cost 1.3 million euros (again a straw man only alleged by the more crackpot blogs). It cost, according to the government transparency website Diavgeia, 59,550 euros, pre-tax.
That is just under 60,000, which in turn is a most curious coincidence. That is because 60,000 euros is the maximum amount that work can be contracted for by EOT (and other similar public bodies) using the summary tendering process which is simpler (and has less oversight). Had the cost just gone over 60,000 euros then a more transparent and involved tendering process would have had to been employed.
That the cost to produce the video just happened to be a mere whisker under the somewhat arbitrary 60,000 euro limit is, well, a remarkable coincidence.
Indeed it might even trigger suspicions that the figure was not arrived at through rigorous accounting but through some other process.
So it would be very positive if EOT and / or the production company released more detailed figures as to exactly how this money was spent, to dispel any potential hint of corruption and overpriced public works.
Or to put it in words EOT can understand: please dispel the myth that this 60,000 euro – excuse me, 59,550 euro - video was not the product of the bad old ways of public contracting in Greece. The kind that see Greek citizens pay through the nose for sub-standard public works that embarrass us abroad, all while contractors at home line their pockets and civil servants praise themselves on a job well done.
Οι πιο πρόσφατες Ειδήσεις
Διαβάστε πρώτοι τις Ειδήσεις για ό,τι συμβαίνει τώρα στην Ελλάδα και τον Κόσμο στο thetoc.gr
