User:Vicky Zont/sandbox/The Friend of the Law

The Friend of the Law was a newspaper that was published for 3 years (March 10, 1824 - May 27, 1827) in Hydra by the Italian philhellene Giuseppe Chiappe. The newspaper published 296 issues in total. It was the longest-lived newspaper of the Greek Revolution.

It was first issued on March 10 1824 and it published twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. While it started as an independent newspaper (in its introduction, in fact, it was written It results anyway in light the Friend of the Law… Its name is enough to assure anyone for the honest objectivity, that it wants to keep and for its hatred towards the clans. What we desire is for the Law to rule and for no-one to ever overrule it…) with the edict 972 of the April 14th 1824, it became an official paper of the administration, and its name changed from Friend of the Law, newspaper of the island of Hydra to Friend of the Law, newspaper of the Greek administration and the island of Hydra, and it started being printed at the press that was a donation from the French editor and philhellene Ambroise - Firmin Didot.

It published decisions, resolutions, acts and circulars of the Executive and records of the Parliament, but also news about military campaigns and the Civil war expressing the official opinions of the administration. During the one and a half year that it was an instrument of the government it had provoked an annoyance of some members of the Parliament, due to the fact that it was controlled by the Kountouriotis brothers (as before it became an organ of the Administration) and asked for its transfer to Nafplion and the removal from the title of the reference of the Administration.

It remained an instrument of administration until October 1825 when the publication of the General Journal of Greece began in Nafplion, after the publication of which The Friend of the Law continued to be published as an independent newspaper, when the articles on education, freedom of the press, etc. were increased. After it began to be published again as an independent newspaper, it decried "kotzampasism" and strongly criticized the General Journal of Greece, but when the publisher of the latter, Theoklitos Farmakidis, was persecuted, the Friend of the Law supported him. With the onset of 1827 its polemic against the agents of power becomes intense, at the same time texts aimed at shaping democratic consciences came to light. Many are signed by Alexandros but most of them by Panagiotis Soutsos, for a time collaborator of the newspaper and spokesman in the years 1826-1827, of the fighting spirit for the defense of constitutional freedoms.