Panelists Put a Human Face on the Greek Debt Crisis

Greece hovered on the brink of chaos this summer as the country
seemed likely to default on its international loans and banks began to close.

Amid prolonged bailout negotiations, Eurozone meetings and endless
economic minutia, reporters covering the crisis strived to humanize its impact.

On Oct. 7, the OPC and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
hosted a forum with three veteran reporters to discuss how to pull compelling
narratives out of this knotty story.

Panelists described shocking conditions, with one in two Greeks
under 24 years old unemployed, and close to half of all bank loans in the
country in default.

Dody Tsiantar, a freelance journalist who has been teaching
journalism at CUNY since 2006, said raw emotion sometimes overwhelmed her when
talking to people affected by the crisis.

She said in July, people were “numb with fear” as they were only
allowed to withdraw 60 euros a day from banks, and were panicked that the
government might seize their funds as had happened in Cypress in March 2013.

She remembered a family that had spent thousands of euros to tutor
their son for college exams was devastated to find that they could not send him
to school because they lacked the funds to pay for his living expenses.

“It’s heartbreaking to see people’s dreams dashed like that,” she
said. “Through no fault of their own.”

Liz Alderman, the chief European business correspondent for the International
New York Times
who joined the panel via Skype from Paris, recalled
reporting on growing child hunger in schools due to budget cutbacks.

“This story made me realize the extent to which austerity and the
economic downturn was hitting the lives of average people,” she said.

Jack Ewing, the European economics correspondent for The
International New York Times
who also joined via Skype from Frankfurt, said
the crisis brought to light how little unity there is among European nations.

“It’s not the single fabric that people wanted it to be. Arguably
the longest term effect of the whole crisis will be the way that it’s
challenged the whole idea of Europe,” he said. “And it raises questions about
what they can do to fix it.”

Marcus Mabry, president of the OPC and Editor at large at The
New York Times
, moderated the panel. He asked where the panelists saw the
story going next.

Ewing said the economic story would shift to long-term debt relief
for Greece, and more broadly about tensions between anti-European Union
factions and the need to protect the union from future crises.

Alderman anticipated that the Syrian refugee crisis would strain
European solidarity as Syrians land in Greece and make their way to other
countries.

Tsiantar said while media coverage would likely diminish,
conditions would continue to worsen as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras puts
austerity measures into place. “I don’t think it’s over by any means,” she
said.