Editorial Ta Nea: Rights

The education minister called upon university students to boldly fend off lawlessness on campuses. Another minister explained to those who engage in violence at universities that they are not battling the system in this manner.

Both approaches have proven ineffective, as the daily new entries in police crime logs bear witness to the fact that universities in our country have been transformed into ghettos.

It is only in ghettoes that guards are stabbed and that police think twice and thrice before cracking down on crime. Only in ghettoes are pleas for help from those who are in a position of weakness turned into cries of agony, because the state is not doing its duty.

Such a cry of agony was the substance of a letter drafted by University of Thessaloniki students and sent to President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and others.

In failing to protect universities, the state proves that it is essentially unable to protect academic freedom. In ignoring the pleas of the academic community, the state is failing to uphold basic rights such as the unhindered transmission of knowledge and the free exchange of ideas.

These rights are the quintessence of university education. No country should tolerate their violation, especially in places that are supposed to be temples of learning, and not lawless ghettos dominated by all types of fascistoid minorities and drug dealers.