Best people to follow on Twitter in the run up to the 2015 elections - Greece

On 25th January the Greeks will once go to the polls to elect a new government, if the international media coverage so far is anything to go by the chances are we will see a repeat of the scaremongering news headlines that marked elections in 2012. Once again people who know no more about Greek politics than  you will appear on your screens and in the newspapers passing themselves off as experts. Often they will be doing nothing more than repeating received wisdom handed to them by EU and Greek government officials and their English speaking allies in the domestic press.

To give you a chance of hearing a much wider, not to say better informed range of opinions I have compiled a list of Twitter users who have consistently proven to be reliable sources of English language information about what is happening in Greece. They are an eclectic bunch though most would place themselves on the Left of the political spectrum, a fact neither I nor they hide. Ideology aside, though, they are people whose opinions I trust and who have demonstrated time and time again that they care more about telling the truth than promoting a particular party line.

So, in no particular order, let me present;

Asteris Masouras - The Godfather of  the Greek twittersphere.

Keep Talking Greece - Blogger who runs a website analysing latest Greek stories in English.

Thomais Papaioannou - Greek reporter based in Paris - Writes in Greek, French and English.

Stephanos Livos - Writer. Tweets in Greek and English.

Apostolis Fotiadis - Freelance journalist based in Athens.

Spyros Gkelis - Cyanobacteriologist, university lecturer. Tweets in Greek, English, Spanish, Italian.

Damian Mac Con Uladh - An Athens based Irish journalist.

Albert John - A rogue economist based in Greece.

The Press Project - An independent news outlet providing news and analysis for a global audience,

Vasiliki Siouti - A Greek journalist who writes in Greek and English.

Olivier Drot - Journalist and photographer, Writes in French, Greek and English

Mehran Khalili - Does political communications and photojournalism.

Tsimitakis - Greek journalist who tweets extensively in English

Joanna P - Radio Bubble contributor

Katharine Sarikakis - Professor of Media Governance University of Vienna

Derek Gatopoulos - An AP writer who tweets in English and Greek

Bruno Tersago - News junkie, philhellene, freelance correspondent for Flemish and Dutch media - based in Greece.

ElenaTzouanacou - UK based academic who writes in Greek and English.

Nick Barnets - An Athens based freelancer.

Katja Lihtenvalner - Athens based Slovenian reporters who also tweets in English

Stratos Moraitis - Writes in Greek, English and Turkish.

Yanis Varoufakis - Economics professor now standing as a SYRIZA candidate.

Zoe Mavroudi - Greek director and documentary film maker.

Yiannis Baboulis - Greek journalist based in Athens.

Yiannis Mouzakis - Greek economic analyst - writes in Greek and English.

Theodora Oikonomides - Blogger and contributor to the RadioBubble indie news service.

Last but not least.

Teacher Dude - Blogger and photojournalists based in Thessaloniki, northern Greece

Do not think of this as a definitive list, but rather a first attempt, so I you want to suggest an addition to this list, help me out by posting a comment.

However, the following news organisations are definitely sitting out 2015 on the naughty step. Not because of their political line but rather the long track record of blindly relying on Greek government sources, sloppy fact checking and inability to distance themselves from an official party line. Do not take their reports on Greece at face value, make sure you double check with more reliable sources.

Guardian

Bloomberg

The BBC

The Economist

Kathimerini (Greek daily that has an English language edition)