Human Rights Watch
Emerging from a protracted period of economic, political, and social crises, coupled with the refugee crisis, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' government, elected in July 2019, has sought to project an image internationally of a forward-thinking and modern administration capable of steering Greece towards a brighter future. However, huge question marks loom over this progressive image given the well-founded human rights concerns about domestic policies that do not respect human rights, stringent anti-immigration measures, repressive policing tactics, scandals, and attempts to stifle critical voices.
These critical voices include journalists—particularly those working for independent media and foreign media outlets—activists, and civil society organizations. Journalists have become targets through various means, including through the use of spyware (such as in the Predator surveillance case) and ostensibly legal methods used to effectively harass, intimidate, and even silence dissent and investigative reporting. Online harassment campaigns, often orchestrated or encouraged by government-aligned actors, further contribute to a hostile environment for journalists. These actions, coupled with the failure of government to ensure media pluralism, government control over state media, and self-censorship by journalists and editors, have dire consequences for democracy and the public's right to information in Greece.
Despite Greece's obligations as a member state of the European Union, the current domestic practices, as documented in this report, demonstrate a pattern of conduct that undermines democracy and the rule of law, particularly with regards to freedom of expression and a free press. These actions contravene the EU's fundamental values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, specifically respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights.
Media pluralism, meaning the existence of a diverse range of media outlets with varying ownership structures and viewpoints, is essential for healthy democracy and provides a level of independent scrutiny that helps uphold the rule of law. Human Rights Watch has found that in Greece, a largely concentrated media landscape dominated by outlets aligned with successive ruling parties, undermines such pluralism. This has developed at least in part due to inadequate legal safeguards to prevent such media concentration and undue political influence, as well as by poor implementation of the legal framework that does exist related to media regulation, ownership transparency, and competition. The effect is that media owners' interests are able to take priority over the principles of independent journalism, which when susceptible to concerted efforts by government officials to silence independent voices, means a landscape skewed towards favorable coverage of the government. This also leads to suppression of critical reporting and the erosion of public trust in the media.
This report focuses specifically on instances where state actions undermine media freedom in ways that undermine the rule of law. It examines cases where the state has sought to control the media to reduce scrutiny and criticism of its own actions, including through incentivizing self-censorship, weakening the media’s role in holding the executive to account and undermining rights to freedom of expression and information for all in Greece, including those working in the media.
Full report:
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