In this paper we examine the discourse on political corruption, with a focus on accusations of corruption and the self-defence discourse of the accused person. For this purpose, we study the discourse of the corruption scandal related with the Greek ex-Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos in 2011, as presented in articles published in the newspaper I Kathimerini. We specifically discuss how the accused is presented in the newspaper, how the accused presents himself and rebuts accusations and the newspaper’s stance, including the recontextualization of his discourse. By using tools of corpus linguistics in combination with Critical Discourse Analysis notions, our analysis points to the discourse strategies used, the extended application of topoi (namely of burden, responsibility, the scapegoat, and reality/appearance) and the biased treatment of the accused’s discourse, which is not only underrepresented but also distorted and ironically treated, suggesting that traditional Press in the Greek context aligns with political parties and the powerful through an array of linguistic devices.

在本文中，我们考察了政治腐败的话语，重点是腐败指控和被告人的自卫话语。为此，我们研究了 2011 年与希腊前国防部长 Akis Tsohatzopoulos 相关的腐败丑闻，如I Kathimerini报纸上发表的文章所述。我们专门讨论了被告如何在报纸上出现，被告如何自我介绍和反驳指控以及报纸的立场，包括其话语的重新语境化。通过使用语料库语言学工具结合批判性话语分析概念，我们的分析指向所使用的话语策略，拓扑的扩展应用 （即负担、责任、替罪羊和现实/外表）以及对被告话语的偏见对待，不仅代表性不足，而且被扭曲和讽刺地对待，这表明希腊语境中的传统新闻与政党和通过一系列语言设备强大。