All the reports on freedom of expression published over the past two years in Greece come to the same conclusion: the situation is going from bad to worse, and “the climate is heavy for the independent journalist”.
The draconian laws have succeeded
“Everything started to go wrong in July 2019”, explains Nikos Ianopoulos, journalist for an Internet site. “The first law passed by the Conservatives, who had just won the elections, placed the national news agency (ANA) and national radio and television (ERT) directly under the control of the Prime Minister. We feared the government’s control over information, but we were far from imagining what followed. » No one could have.
In less than three years, draconian laws have followed one another. The one on “fake news” is by far the most worrying. Journalists who spread “false information” are liable to several months in prison and heavy fines.
→ READ. Freedom of the press: Reporters Without Borders warns of “information chaos”
Officially voted to fight against disinformation on the Covid, this law «gives the government the ability to attack virtually any critical article,” emphasizes Dimitris Trimas, former president of the Athens Journalists Association (ESYEA). Moreover, the Supreme Council of Greek Audiovisual, very silent on the multitude of cases of censorship denounced, can now control the “drifts” of the media including for the written press. Newspapers and publishers will have to pay him fines.
Large scale censorship
A « aberration, according to Nikos Smyrnaios, media specialist at the University of Toulouse, this law was passed in a context of great tension between the government and the magazine Document journalist Kostas Vaxevanis, in the crosshairs of the government because of his investigations into the fortune of the Prime Minister and the corruption of the country”.
For this lecturer, this law has only one goal, “destroy the independent investigative newspapers, which are very few in Greece”.The still unsolved murder of journalist Giorgos Karaivaz, who was investigating the relationship between the mafia and the police, two years ago, sent a very strong signal to the entire investigative press. Large-scale censorship darkens the picture.
“As national television, ERT has always been obliged to present the views of all parties in Parliamentexplains Machi Nikolara, whose broadcast on ERT is suspended, but rather than making the opposition parties heard, political broadcasts were suppressed. » In Greece, continues this trade unionist, “The press has always been ideologically marked. When it is balanced, it passes. But when it’s just the ruling party line, there’s a very serious problem. »
Willingness to control information
Another is the bugging of journalists who investigate matters that are inconvenient for the government, such as the issue of illegal pushbacks on the high seas. Two cases have already been reported, but for Loucas Stamellos, of the alternative site Omnia TV, there are many others, as proof of the law passed on the matter. «From now onexplains this whistleblower, when a monitoring ends, the monitored person is no longer informed as was the case before, and this measure is retroactive. This gives us an additional indication of the government’s desire to control information. »
The monopoly of distribution by Evangelos Marinakis, a close friend of the Prime Minister, and state financial support granted according to the content of the newspapers complete the media decor of a country which tumbles each year in the rankings on freedom of the press. Report that government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou rejects outright. For him, “The independence of the press is guaranteed by the Constitution. Pluralism and freedom of expression are a daily practice in the country. »