Domestic violence is a serious and insidious social issue that concerns anyone, regardless of gender or social status. It takes several forms, including physical, emotional, verbal, spiritual, sexual, economic, or a combination of the above. Due to the fact that it occurs behind closed doors, it is often completely invisible to society. This makes it difficult to assess how many families are actually involved.
Transnational repression, as defined by a Freedom House report, describes how authoritarian states reach across national borders to silence dissent and critical voices among diaspora and exile communities. It is essentially an assortment of methods that a state can use to subdue its own citizens living outside of its territory. Freedom House first drew attention to this phenomenon in their 2021 report, “Out of Sight, Not Out of Reach.”
The RSF report comes at a crunch time to note what other international organizations have expressed earlier: concerns about the treatment of journalists by the Greek Police, restrictions on coverage of the immigration issue, and direct or indirect effort of the Greek government to control the flow of information for political gain.
We like, we share, we comment. And hence we feel that we did something good. Online activity and social media instead of encouraging being more active in real life, became a substitute of real action. Meanwhile, those who rule our countries will not get scared because of our “likes”.
Liberty. Equality. Fraternity. France and Europe and its three pillars have been shaken. Or rather have been shaking for at least a decade, but few wanted to admit this and to take action.
