Journalist Rena Kouvelioti was brutally attacked and seriously injured during a report she was conducting for private Alpha TV. The assault became known through a statement by Greece’s Journalist Union ESIEA on Tuesday.
“The attempt to intimidate and silence the information officers with the use of violence will not work,” ESIEA said in its statement.
Details about the assault have not became public, however, the victim spoke to news website newsbomb.gr and stressed that: “The efforts to silence the mission that I have been practicing all these years fall into the vacuum.”
She emphasized that she will continue the research she has undertaken and bring it to the end. “The people who practice violence are the ones who break the law, so they will be held accountable in justice,” Kouvelioti underlined.
According to news website koutipandora.gr, The journalist has been intensely investigating two cases in the last months: the case of the murder of 31-year-old Babis Koytsikos, in Messolonghi (January 2024) and the brutal abuse and murder of husky dog Oscar in winter resort of Arachova (December 2023).
In the case of Oscar, Kouvelioti was asked by police to testify. when she did so, she reported at that time that on the day she gave her testimony, “unknown people had thrown “poison bait” at her own dog. According unconfirmed reports and animal welfare societies, a local businessman was responsible for Oscar’s killing and there were intensive efforts for a cover up.
Following her assault Rena Kouvelioti file a lawsuit and police have arrested the attacker, newsbomb.gr reported.
Later in the evening Rena Kouvelioti appeared at the Alpha TV Prime Time News and described the assault while she was doing a report in south-eastern Attica, where an oxygen welding works were conducted next to dry grasses. Note that it is fire season in Greece and such works are forbidden by law.
With a grip, the man turned his hand behind me,” she said. She suffered swelling in the collarbone and hematoma and injuries to the neck.
Rena Kouveliotis was attack she received during reporting at a site in southeastern Attica, that could cause a fire, as they were doing oxygen welding next to dry grass.
“The complaint was that there was arbitrary work, an arbitrary construction site and that action should be taken. We approached this gentleman, I want to believe he is an employee, and we asked him with whose permission the work is being done and we were attacked unprovoked,” she said.
A prosecutor and police had to intervene, because the attacker then hid in a certain house. He was arrested.
the attacker is to appear before the court, tomorrow, Wednesday. He filed a law suit against the journalist for “false accusation.”
Rena Kouvelioti stressed that she is determined to conclude her report adding that “Journalism is not silenced.”
