Maryam Rezaei
Chrissoula Manolakaki
Panos Chreppas
Stamatis Tsagias
Asimeni TountaGiannis Belegrinis
As a child, I was always told that being “absolute” and strong-headed on my point of views and beliefs, was wrong and no one would listen to me…! I can’t say growing up I listened much to the voices in my head telling me: stop being absolute… but nevertheless the voices have always accompanied me making me think twice, and I have caught myself saying what I despised the most, to not to be absolute, to other people!!! Ironic ha?! So where does the truth lie? How can we believe in our dream and our values, if we aren’t “absolute”? Especially when what you are doing is going against the majority… the “communities” do’s and don’ts! Giannis Belegrinis is exactly this person… one who is going against the wind! I mean we all have “Shades of Gray” in our belief systems… but not Giannis! And believe me it took me over 3 hours to try to convince him to be more flexible and to understand how strongly his beliefs are… of course and “luckily” for our society he was relentless!!!
Giannis Belegrinis studied journalism, without having any influence from anyone in his family. Right out of college he fell on to the Greek economic crisis, finding a very tough job market. Nevertheless, starting from a trainee at a large national newspaper, in 7years time Giannis searching for a medium that was aligned with his own beliefs, worked for many media/news companies. But that was the problem; even when he did find himself in a healthy environment and could be creative and spontaneous, the company would change or ask him for more advertising driven articles that would “favor” the advertiser! Now, to most people, that would be natural and they would do as they were asked to, provided they get their monthly salary… right? Well, Giannis Belegrinis has a very high moral conscience of what is right and wrong. He believes that a reporter should serve the audience and his readers… to be truthful and loyal to them, stating facts and not leaving out misconduct deliberately as not to “stir the waters” with sponsors!
in September 2016, wanting to stay true to his beliefs, Giannis established his own media and news portal with a great name, Itspossible! It’s a place where you will NOT find news or articles driven by advertisers nor stories that favor anyone! Just facts and news on startups and businesses in Greece and worldwide!
Going against the wind is very hard…especially, when supply is at a huge surplus and demand has the strings to steer the ship at its advantage! Giannis is among a hand full of journalists and Editors that have very high ethics and not bending them for a better and easier life! Just a small example… I asked him how he feels about article contributors and his answer was a strict NO! I tried many times telling him that, the contributors will also be awarded by visibility through his portal… but still the answer was a big NO! He says that work should be paid! I mean seriously, I know no one who would say NO to free! And another example is that he denied an advertiser a paid interview… as all content on his portal is about facts and stating the truth!!! Wow… Which Editor would turn down money, especially in a time of economic crisis???
Giannis is very kind, polite, ethical, extremely helpful and giving…offering his knowhow and contacts without a second thought! Now how many journalists do you know that would give you contact details of a source? I don’t know anyone… well now I do! :) Thank you Giannis!
http://www.itspossible.gr
