The presentation of the new book by the “veteran” of police reporting, Panos Sampolou “Vendettas: Vendetta Crimes in Greece”, in Patras tomorrow, Wednesday 23/10/2024, at 7 p.m., in the ESIEPIN hall (Maisonos 200), it was the occasion for a warm, “confessional” mood, interview in “Monday’s Peloponnese” with the author.
-What prompted you to write your seventh book in a row “Vendettas: Vendetta Crimes in Greece”?
In my long journalistic career, I had dealt with many vendetta cases, some of which had shocked public opinion. I have often said that when I retire and have time, I will write a separate book about this type of crime. So, God claimed me and I made it happen. This book is of particular interest because it includes cases that took place in Crete, Mani and the rest of Greece, as well as a murder committed in Germany, where a mother killed the rapist and strangler of her 7-year-old daughter in court.
– Why did you take up writing books? What is your goal?
I write the books to leave a legacy for future generations of how crime in all its forms fluctuated during the years I served as a police reporter. Some of the crimes I did not live through, but I looked them up and found them in police and court records, as well as in the newspapers of the time.
Panos Sombolos signs his new book
– Your name is inextricably linked to the police report. Do you accept the title the “dean of police reporting”?
I am neither dean nor patriarch of police reporting. I am an ordinary journalist who served in this field for 45 whole years. My goal has always been to correctly and objectively inform the people who read and follow me.
– Were there moments when you caught yourself “bending” and feeling “weak” to convey the news objectively?
There were some times, mostly when I saw children killed, but when I was reporting I never showed that I was disturbed. Nor did I do any theatrics of pretending to cry or moan to impress.
– If time were to go back, would you make the same professional choice again? Have you really made mistakes in your journalism career? Have you regretted something, what did you miss?
I would like to be a journalist again. We all make mistakes, as long as we correct them. Only in cemeteries do mistakes happen! As for deprivations, I was deprived of a lot in my life, especially my family, because I worked day and night and ran from one end of Greece to the other to cover the events. But what to do? That’s what the police report says.
-At the moment of withdrawal from daily active activity, how did you experience it?
Very positive and very nice. Why did I deserve to get a pension and live peacefully and with family for the rest of my life? I enjoy everyday life, that my schedule is full. Many colleagues tell me to keep working since I can. I have some principles in my life and I say: Everything in its time. When I retired, I had two jobs – newspaper and television. If I, who have completed pensionable years and more, continue to work, a young child who is now finishing his studies and is looking for his destiny in the sun, where will he find a job? We the older ones have to leave and make way for the new kids.
-What would you like colleagues and the world to know about the man Panos Sombolo?
Credibility, acclaim, validity, recognition, acceptance, and the love of the world, are not bought, given, or dropped from the sky. All these are conquered and in fact with many efforts, difficulties, but also sacrifices in life.
Panos Sombolos was for a number of years President of ESIEA
“I used to walk 15 km to go to work”
– What led you to study journalism and become a police reporter? What difficulties did you encounter in the first steps and when did the establishment come?
It all started from a text I wrote in a local newspaper, when I was a student at the Agrini Boys High School. Then I decided to become a journalist. The difficulties in the first years are too many. When you start from your village barefoot and go to Athens to pursue a career, one realizes that the difficulties are many. I didn’t even have 7 pennies that made the ticket then and I was going from the newspaper where I first worked, about 15 kilometers on foot! Thank God all this passed and with persistence and hard work I achieved the goals I had set.
– Do the journalism of then and today have something in common or are they two different worlds? With the years of experience you carry, do you see how the situation has deviated these days, at the “altar” of competition for who will be the first to get the news?
We always chased it for the first time, but in the past we didn’t write a news story if we didn’t cross paths with it twice. Today things changed. We have the websites, where if someone writes a fake news, in a few minutes you will read it on hundreds of sites! No one bothers to report and investigate whether it is correct or even follow it up with more evidence. Unfortunately!
– What would you advise the new, but also old “combatant” colleagues? Is there a guide to being “good” or does it have to do with character, principles, values and moral defenses one possesses?
Let our young colleagues, especially, remember two words: Morality and hard work. If they have these in their professional career they will go ahead and succeed in their life. The word ethos includes many concepts, such as humanity, love, respect, mutual aid, etc. They should inform correctly and objectively without being influenced by financial institutions, parties, factions, football teams, etc. To say what is really happening and not to confuse the role of the journalist with the role of the prosecutor, the judge, the police, etc.
– When your son Giorgos announced to you that he would become a journalist and especially a police reporter, what was your reaction, what was the advice you gave him as a father?
I wanted both my children to become journalists, but my daughter did not want to and followed the law. I told my son what I tell all the new guys coming into our profession.
Panos Sombolos with his son, George
The rebellion in the prisons of Patras
– You have dedicated your life to police reporting and covering sensational events. The nature of the profession is dangerous. Has your life or that of your loved ones ever been threatened?
Strange as it may seem, I was on very good terms with the outlaws and all sorts of criminals. In an uprising in the prisons of Agios Stefanos in Patras, which I had gone to report on, when the prisoners who were perched in various places saw me, they began to shout my name and clap their hands. Then the prosecutor, who was watching the scene, asked me to intervene and convince them to stop the rebellion and return to their cells. I answered him in a nice way that I’m sorry I can’t do it because I’m a journalist and I don’t mix the roles of prosecutor, mediator and police. Even today, I maintain good relations with many illegals and even well-known oneswhile in the past I had helped many to find a job after their release and I helped some of them financially.”
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#reporting #didnt #theatrics
