[summerdown2]

> I support the author and what the bank did is just absolutely wrong and outrageous, but I just want to clarify that this is not a freedom of speech issue.

I don't agree. In US terms, "Freedom of Speech" appears to be framed only in terms of the rights of someone relative to the government.

But in the UK, we don't have a first amendment, or even a written constitution. I would find it absolutely normal for someone to discuss freedom of speech issues about wider things than simply government overreach. In fact, the opposite is just as likely to be true: freedom of speech can be curtailed by things like private injunctions or the lack of space where it's safe to speak, which may be occuring due to lack of government action or regulation.

Freedom of Speech is a phrase that I've always thought has a wider application than it appears limited to in the US, where it seems mixed up with a lot of politics that don't appear anywhere else.

Anyway, just my opinion from the UK. I think this is very much something that can be discussed in terms of freedom of speech in the wider (non-US) sense, due to the power disparity of the actors being used (if true) to quash speech that would otherwise be freely available - and, given Greece is in Europe, I believe the author is right to frame it in those terms.