The year 2021 was difficult for all journalists. In Greece, as part of the measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the government limited access to press hearings utilizing teleconferencing, but also limited access to public data. Whereas the former was the case in most European countries, the latter indicates a trend towards greater control of the media.
According to data from iMEdD, a non-profit with a mission to promote transparency and credibility in journalism, getting the facts straight has been a continuous struggle throughout the pandemic. Instead of providing full access to pandemic data, in a machine-readable format, the Greek government excluded sets of data and only provided overviews in the form of a scanned PDFs.
It was the beginning of worse trouble. With sales and advertising collapsing, the government stepped in to subsidize the media through an official campaign. However, instead of allocating funds according to objective measures such as audience share, workforce, or sales, it prioritized the funding of friendly media, even non-existent ones, and exclude those more critical of its policies.
In a recent hearing in the Greek parliament, the CEO of the media shop that distributed the money admitted that the government compiled the media plan which was served by his company.
By comparison, in Austria, ex-chancellor Sebastian Kurz had to resign and end his political career after it was found he distributed a million euro to friendly media. In Greece, the government allocated 40 million euros in two rounds – with no consequences so far.
Unsurprisingly, the government’s communication strategy has not persuaded enough citizens to get jabs. The country faces strong vaccine hesitancy, resulting in a slow-down that has worsened a fourth wave of COVID-related cases, still surging in Greek hospitals. A few days ago, the highest number of daily deaths in the pandemic since it started was recorded.
New ‘Official Truth’ on COVID May Not be Disputed
Anti-vaccine protesters participate in a demonstration outside the parliament in central Athens. Photo: EPA-EFE/KOSTAS TSIRONIS
Reacting to these developments, the government intervened again to fight COVID-19 related misinformation and fake news. The new penal code, adopted last month in the Greek parliament, includes an article that states that, “fake news which may cause anxiety or fear to the citizens […] can be prosecuted”. An anti-vaxxer lawyer has already been prosecuted for spreading fake news online.
The Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers, JUADN-ESIEA, opposed the law, warning that it could damage press freedom and the freedom of speech in the country. ESIEA, a moderate union, asked the government to repeal the law and called on the European Federation of Journalists to bring the issue to the European Parliament. In response, the European Commission said that it deems the measure disproportionate, calling for a re-evaluation. However, the Greek government is not considering any such change.
Putting the new law in context, it appears that the government has introduced an official “truth” on COVID-19 in order to defend the greater good of public health. In practice, it is the first time that courts are asked to judge whether certain views are true or false and for the benefit of the public or not.
What is worrying about the new law from the perspective of ESIEA and European watchdogs is the lack of clarity in the definition of what is “fake news” and freedom to express an opinion. Legal experts like Pavlos Eleftheriadis, a professor of public law at the University of Oxford, stated that the new law “is extraordinarily vague”.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis looks on as he arrives for a European Union Summit with all 27 EU leaders at The European Council Building in Brussels. Photo: EPA-EFE/KENZO TRIBOUILLARD
According to Eleftheriadis, in a court system that has repeatedly proven to be unreliable in the protection of human rights, that could prove dangerous. The judiciary in Greece is highly politicized, reflecting the country’s main problem, the clientelist state. NGOs and legal associations are also worried for the disproportionality of the new law. The Reporters Without Borders has asked both the EU executive and the European Parliament to “firmly denounce” Greece’s new defamation law as “an attack on press freedom.”
In a recent interview, Prime Minister Mitsotakis accepted criticisms aired in The Washington Post and promised to review the law, but in a message to Greek national TV broadcaster ANT1, the Prime Minister then defended the new law.
In an analogy to the antivaxx movement, it seems that fighting misinformation with penalties is like fighting fire with gasoline. While propagating individual responsibility to defend public health against COVID has given room to reactionary voices like vaccine deniers, penalizing public opinion could elevate it to a form of fake resistance. In Greece, like in many other countries, there is now a vast, unregulated market of small business news sites and outlets that build their business models on influencing public opinion, often by propagating stereotypes, rather than investing in research and the original production of news.
ESIEA recognizes the problem of “fake news” but says regulation should be prioritized over penalization. The new law does not distinguish fact from opinion, a critical distinction in journalism; according to ESIEA, penalizing the second could pose a threat to the freedom of speech. Many fear the new law may open the door to the fulfilling a long-standing desire of some politicians to control criticism online.
Media freedom a cause of growing concern
Anti-vaccine protesters participate in a demonstration in Corinth city, Peloponnese. Photo:L EPA-EFE/VASSILIS PSOMAS
Media freedom in Greece is highlighted in EU reports on the rule of law as a cause of concern in the country. In a question put by the group of the Left in the European Parliament a few days ago, Vera Jourova said that the situation is problematic and will likely be recorded as worsening in the next report on the rule of law in the country. The watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index has placed Greece in the category of countries in a “problematic situation” for the period 2013-2021, falling from the “very good situation” a decade ago. In 2021, it ranked Greece in 70th place out of 180 countries. That ranking is expected to drop even lower.
On November 13, the Athens daily newspaper Efsyn published Greek intelligence service “intelligence memos” gathering information on anti-vaxxers and on activists helping migrants – but also on a journalist later hired by AFP.
In response to AFP’s complaints, Minister of State George Gerapetritis insisted that “there is no surveillance of journalists in Greece”. But there was more worrying news this year. Throughout 2021, Greek authorities routinely ignored questions by journalists on the coronavirus pandemic, police abuse and the migration crisis. And only recently, Greece was one of the 17 European countries that failed to incorporate a new directive on the protection of whistleblowers in the legal system.
In April, a crime reporter, 52-year-old Giorgos Karaivaz, was gunned down outside his home in Athens. The police are investigating the crime, but no arrests have been made, despite pressure by European watchdogs and journalists’ associations.
Matthaios Tsimitakis is a Greek journalist and a social media expert based in Athens. He is an author of the independent Greek newsletter “Nema” (The Thread)
The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BIRN.
