Greek TV station bombed
December 18, 2018
By Chris Forrester
Greek broadcaster Skai TV suffered bomb damage, although no injuries, in the early hours of Dec 17th.
Staff were evacuated from the building after anonymous callers telephoned warnings. The explosive device had been placed in a backpack and left on the sidewalk outside Skai’s premises.
The force of the explosion blew out windows as high as the sixth floor of the building. “The material damage is big on almost all floors, with the biggest seen on the third and fourth floors, where employees’ offices are located,” the broadcaster said in a statement. “The picture is disheartening. Suspended ceilings collapsed to the floor, glass windows broken into pieces.”
Skai is one of Greece’s largest broadcasters, and is affiliated with radio stations and print media in Greece.
“They wanted to hurt democracy and possibly take human lives,” Deputy Citizens’ Protection Minister Katerina Papakosta said.
She was echoed by the president of the Athens Union of Journalists, ESIEA, Maria Antoniadou, who described the hit as “an attack on information, on democracy.”
Journalists presenting SKAI’s morning show on December 17th were broadcasting live outside the building.