Greece has fallen five places in the world ranking of press freedom established by the NGO Reporters Without Borders: it is ranked 70th out of 180, between Poland and Mongolia. This situation is constantly deteriorating and the work of journalists is becoming more and more difficult.
Recently, a Dutch journalist who raised the question of Greek responsibility in the refoulement of migrants on the high seas to Prime Minister Kyriákos Mitsotákis had her microphone taken away. She had to leave the country because of threats.
More generally, in Athens, there is a retention of general information. Thus, no later than Thursday, January 13, the investigative journalist Kostas Vaxevanis was summoned by the courts for his investigation into one of the biggest corruption scandals amounting to several hundred thousand euros. He is heard on the charge of belonging to a criminal organization.
Added to all this is the vote of a very worrying law which allows wiretapping without the prior authorization of the judge and the firm imprisonment of any author of an article considered to be “fake news”. Finally, the murder of a journalist has still not been elucidated.
If the situation of freedom of the press has never been brilliant, in particular because of the self-censorship of a large part of the journalists, for two years, it has been freewheeling. As soon as he came to power in July 2019, the conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis at officially took control of the national television ERT and the Greek news agency ANA. The tone was then set.
Since then, according to Loukas Stamello, of the alternative site Omnia TV, the surveillance of journalists has increased:
“There is surveillance and harassment of journalists at two levels in Greece”
Loukas Stamelloat franceinfo
Media support against financial contracts
“One is direct and high-level surveillance, for ‘reasons of state’, including wiretapping. And the other is police harassment, protests and their registration according to pro-government line or not of their media.”
Such a situation is due to the very structure of the media in Greece, the owners of which are either shipowners or entrepreneurs who work with whatever power it may be, on the principle of media support against financial contracts.
Moreover, the overwhelming majority of the media only survive thanks to government subsidies. Being a journalist and asking the awkward questions becomes difficult. More than 95% of mstardays are now pro-government in Greece. Finally, 70% of the population no longer trust them. This is the highest European rate in this area.