Coverage of Greece's economic crisis by the media, both traditional and new, was the subject of a seminar organised by the British Embassy in Greece on Friday (May 16), with the participation of journalists, academics and experts from Greece and the United Kingdom.

Professor Dimitris Sotiropoulos who was the moderator, described media coverage of the crisis as "uneven" or even “bad and poorly prepared, based on stereotypes and ill founded analysis.”

Others noted the strong interest shown by UK media, even though the UK was not a part of the eurozone; the negative images of Greece propagated by media groups such as the Economist or the Financial Times, as a country rife with corruption and graft - images that, according to George Tzogopoulos of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), Greek journalists working for the British media had also helped to cultivate.

Athens-based correspondent Joanna Kakissis referred to the pressure on reporters from their editors to resort to populism and stereotypes, with all Greeks presented initially as lazy and then as impoverished victims of the crisis.