Liana Kanelli

Liana Kanelli (20 March 1954 - ) is a Greek journalist and politician.

In 1975, at 21, starting her career in journalism, and was proclaimed by the then Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis to be the "Girl of New Democracy" [cite news |last=Raptis|first=Nikos |title=The Greeks, Kosovo, etc (Part II) |publisher=znet.org |date=1999-05-12 |accessdate=2007-03-12] .. New Democracy being the conservative party that was created, after the fall of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974.

In the next decade Kanelli evolved into a kind of a Greek "Barbara Walters" and often played the role of media polemic and sensationalist.

Liana Kanelli was host of a television program in one of Greece's two leading private stations, Mega Channel, as well as publisher of the profoundly anti-Western, and nationalist monthly "Nemesis."

Kanelli at the age of 45, Kanelli announced from the podium of a rally protesting the Kosovo War and the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, that she would run as a candidate of the Communist Party of Greece for the European Parliament.

Since then, Kanelli has continued her dual role of journalist and politician, securing a seat as Greek Parliament deputy. She was also a member of the International Committee for the Defense of Slobodan Milošević and referred to the NATO bombing of the city of Alexinac, 30 kilometers north of Nis, on April 6, 1999 that resulted to many civilian deaths.

Kanelli has also continued as publisher, recently publishing a series of private e-mails of Margaret Papandreou. The issue of privacy has been brought to public the debate of what is acceptable and unacceptable ethics in journalism, with Kanelli obtaining the emails through the technique of computer hacking. Mrs Papandreou brought suit on grounds of violation of Article 19 of the Greek Constitution. The origins of this rule, ironically came into being as a consequence of the wiretapping of ministerial private conversations by the Hellenic National Intelligence Service during the Dictatorship years.

References

External links

* * [http://www.parliament.gr/english/synthesh/mp.asp?MPID=607 Biography on Greek Parliament website]
* [http://www.zmag.org/ZSustainers/ZDaily/1999-05/may_12raptis.htm Article documenting Mrs Kanelli's change of party]
* [http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/ALMemberDetails.asp?MemberID=4399 Kanelli member of the Council of Europe]
* [http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpa/2004/04-10-20.mpa.html#08 On Kanelli's Defence of Milosevic]
* [http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9906a&L=albanews&F=&S=&P=2617 Media History of Liana Kanelli]
* [http://www.coe.int/T/e/com/files/events/2002-09-Media/conclusions_white.asp EU commission on journalism]