Diavgeia, the Truth Team, and Blue Skies

According to data on “Diavgeia,” the company Blue Skies appears to have undertaken projects for the public sector (approximately €60,000), despite the fact that the managers of the “Truth Team” claim they have not received “a single euro from the public sector.”

The issue arose from a report by “InsideStory” about Blue Skies (formerly a company of V+O, run by Th. Barvitsiotis and G. Olympios), where the managers of the “Truth Team,” an “unofficial mechanism of the New Democracy Party,” have been working since 2018. They claim that since 2012, the “Truth Team” has been “responding to fake news.” In addition to their work with Blue Skies, the two managers of the “Truth Team” also have two companies that collaborated with the public sector in advertising campaigns, which, according to them, all media outlets engage in.

These are ADJUSTMENT IKE (2021), primarily involved in the production of online newspapers, including the informational website “ellada24.gr,” and “RENDER MEDIA IKE,” which, among other things, focuses on the design, development, creation, and management of informational websites, both news and entertainment, as well as providing advertising services.

The opposition accuses the “Truth Team” of “character assassination of the government’s opponents,” while the latter denies any employee relationship between the Prime Minister’s Office, the New Democracy Party, and the “Truth Team.”

According to “InsideStory,” since 2018, Blue Skies has also employed members of the New Democracy Party and the government.

The government rejects the opposition’s accusations of a propaganda mechanism funded by the state behind the “Truth Team.” Government spokesperson P. Marinakis clarified that “The ‘Truth Team’ has no employment or staff relationship with the Prime Minister’s Office or with New Democracy. However, it has a specific political stance.”

This followed accusations from PASOK and SYRIZA about contracts for the “character assassination” of political opponents with state funding, allegedly from the “Truth Team.”