Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

• Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) (NYSE: PM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Christos Harpantidis to the position of Senior Vice President, External Affairs effective May 1, 2024.
• “He has been instrumental in building our smoke-free business in Greece and the South East Europe Area as we evolve away from cigarettes.
• “Leading our dynamic External Affairs function globally is an enormous honor,” said Christos Harpantidis.
• “Under Christos’ leadership, I believe that the External Affairs function will ensure that this positive momentum is maintained and further amplified.”
  Philip Morris International (PMI) is a leading international tobacco company, actively delivering a smoke-free future and evolving its portfolio for the long term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector.

• There were an estimated 750 people on board, 70 were confirmed to have died and only 104 were rescued from the wreckage – leaving many unaccounted for.
• In March, another shipwreck, this time off Italy, left nearly 100 people dead.
• The figures, driven in part by the war in Ukraine, even exceed those during the Mediterranean refugee crisis between 2015 and 2016.

Migration in Southern Europe

• As has been the case this year with the shipwrecks referred to above, the focus of this crisis was in southern Europe.
• In June of that year, in Spain, the arrival of the Aquarius boat marked a turning point.
• One of the demands made by these countries, and which is precisely behind the declaration of a migration emergency in Italy, is the need for migration management at the European level, as the burden of managing arrivals falls almost exclusively on the national authorities, when it is a European challenge.

Hate in the media

• But the phenomenon of racism and rejection of migrants is very complex, and is often related to the representation of these people in the media.
• This project has recently resulted in a book, entitled Migrants and Refugees in Southern Europe Beyond the News Stories: Photographs, Hate and Journalists’ Perceptions.

Observations of concern

• It was found that mainstream media in Mediterranean countries are dominated by those frames that depict migrants as victims or as a burden.
• Moreover, negative frames (both those portraying migrants as a burden and those identifying them as a threat) have grown significantly between 2014 and 2019.
• Although the pattern is shared across the three countries, it is the Greek media that make a substantially more negative representation of migration through their frames.

How to reverse this situation

In order to achieve a more humane representation of migration in the media, we propose three strategies:
• This is necessary to tell the whole story, so as not to limit migrants to a mass in front of our borders.
• David Blanco-Herrero receives funding from the Ministry of Universities under the FPU programme (ref.

• RICHMOND, Va., April 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- BioMech Holdings, LLC , which develops and distributes real-time motion analytics that quantify and improve patient outcomes in the healthcare, sports, wellness, and industrial sectors, is announcing the appointment of Athanassios Diplas, PhD to its board of directors.
• In his capacity, Diplas will act in an advisory role, utilizing vast experience in global finance and science to provide strategic counsel as BioMech expands into diverse markets.
• "Athanassios compliments BioMech's board by bringing decades of experience in science, and global finance to the table.
• Athanassios will be instrumental in helping BioMech navigate towards further success," said BioMech Chairman and Founder Dr. Frank Fornari.

• LONDON, Feb. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- BE OPEN Art, an online art gallery set up by BE OPEN think tank, a humanitarian initiative founded by international philanthropist Elena Baturina, summarized the first month of a new regional competition for emerging artists.
• By the majority of votes made by the visitors of BE OPEN Art online gallery in January, the title of Regional Artist of the Month goes to Christina Kyriacou , Cyprus.
• The regional competition will run along the regular ongoing work of BE OPEN Art, whose experts select 20 artists every month, using online voting to name the Artist of the Month and the Artist of the Year.
• Aiming to showcase and support emerging talents, BE OPEN Art selects artists at an early stage of their career - the project sees its mission in looking for the new influencers in the art scene.