Greek Voters Are Battered by a Barrage of Doomsday Ads

Athens, Greece: The ads come close to suggesting that the apocalypse could be just around the corner if Greeks make the wrong choice in a referendum on Sunday.

Against a blue background, a cheery cartoon rendering of an ATM appears and an announcer asks: Will there be cash on Monday?

A big red "X" crosses it out. Will there be gasoline? Will there be medicine? Will pensions be paid? As the ad continues, a dozen such questions are answered with a resounding "no," before the tagline appears urging voters to say yes in Sunday's referendum.

"Now, that we know how many no's a no can bring," the voice-over says, "On Sunday, we say, yes."

In the referendum, Greeks will be asked to decide whether to vote yes to accepting a bailout package that would keep Greece solvent and in the eurozone - but impose more taxes and pension cutbacks - or to vote no and demand a better deal or, possibly, be kicked out of the euro.

On Friday, a day of dueling yes and no rallies, when a top Greek court swept aside a constitutional challenge to the referendum, the role of the news media emerged as one of the most contentious issues. Ads predicting doomsday scenarios and long newspaper articles on the plight of retirees have been coming fast and furious from Greece's oligarch-dominated news organizations, which critics say are all-in on the yes side.

Whatever their ultimate impact on the vote, the hothouse news media atmosphere and, critics say, scaremongering have helped perpetuate the chaos and confusion that has been rampant since the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, called for the referendum a week ago.

"There is no discussion of the real issues," said Nikos Leandros, a news media expert at the Panteion University in Athens. "They are exaggerating the feelings of fear and agony and creating an atmosphere that makes it impossible for anyone to think clearly."

Voters are being subjected to a heavy barrage of ads, many of them suggesting that to follow the call of Tsipras for a no vote would unleash forces that would see Greece cast out of the European Union altogether, with disastrous results.

Tsipras himself has been campaigning for a no vote, most likely in the hope that it would give him new leverage in dealing with creditors who he says are offering harsh terms that would only drive Greece deeper into the economic abyss.

Tsipras, whose political career is on the line in the vote, took time out Thursday evening to criticize the news media. During a televised interview, he complained of unbalanced coverage. When challenged by a reporter, he offered official figures showing that the six main stations in Greece had given about eight minutes to a no rally and 46 minutes to a yes rally.

The bulk of the coverage of the no rally came from one station, ERT, he said, which had been shut down by the previous government and which gave both sides about equal time.

He said that one station, Skai, gave zero minutes to the no rally, which drew thousands to a square in front of the parliament building and more than seven minutes to the equally well-attended yes rally the next day.

Friday, Tsipras renewed his call for Greeks to reject the terms of the bailout offer from the country's European creditors, warning voters against caving in to "blackmail."

"I ask you to say no to ultimatums, blackmail and fearmongering," he said in a televised address. "No to divisions, no to those who want to spread panic."

Calling for national unity, he reiterated his insistence that the referendum set for Sunday would be a vote on a bad deal for Greece rather than a referendum on its continued membership in the single-currency eurozone.

Just who is financing the frightening yes ads is unclear, according to Christos Xanthakis, the media editor for Newpost.gr, a right-leaning news site, who said the major opposition parties, who all favor a yes vote, have no money.

But, he says, beyond the ads, major news outlets that in the past have largely ignored the troubles of average Greeks are now offering story after story on their troubles, heightening a sense of fear before the vote.

"They are covering people's misfortunes 24/7 right now," Xanthakis said. "If they had shown this kind of sensitivity over the last five years, Greece would be a better country."

Leandros said that there are rules about giving equal time to political campaigns, but that they have often been ignored and are particularly hard to enforce in such a brief campaign.

And, he said, the owners of the major television news outlets are particularly unhappy with Tsipras because he has said that he wants them to pay for their licenses and to open the market to new competitors.

Tsipras' no ads are more an extension of his original campaign, which rallied people's sense of pride and resistance. One pictures a series of energetic young people giving their reasons for saying no. One says, "I vote no because democracy cannot be blackmailed." Another, "I vote no because austerity policies exhaust Europe."

Tsipras has countered the yes ads with frequent use of his office, addressing the country several times, including Friday, when he took advantage of a new report from the International Monetary Fund that maintained, as the prime minister himself has for months, that Greece will need debt relief to get back on its feet.

Leaders from the major center-left and center-right parties, including the former prime minister, Antonis Samaras, have had no trouble finding news media exposure to make their case that Tsipras has brought the country to ruin.

Both sides have had celebrities make guest appearances in the campaign, including a son of the deposed Greek king who urged citizens to vote yes, and the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, who urged them to vote no.

When Tsipras ran for office in January, Greeks were also subjected to ads and newspaper coverage suggesting a vote for his Syriza party would be the undoing of Greece. One official even suggested that Greeks stock up on toilet paper. Nonetheless, Greeks voted for him.

This time, however, with the banks closed and European Union officials themselves campaigning against him, polls suggest it is too close to call.

Both the yes vote and the no vote held competing rallies Friday night, each drawing thousands of spectators. Speakers at the yes rally talked of wanting to remain part of Europe. Tsipras also said he wanted to stay in Europe, but he urged his supporters to stand up for themselves and not be afraid.