8 May 2025
From Bad to Worse: The Deterioration of Media Freedom in Greece
Summary
Date Reported: 8 May 2025
Location: Greece
Companies
ERT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation) - Other Value Chain Entity , AMNA (Athens-Macedonian News Agency) - Other Value Chain EntityAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Workers: ( Number unknown - Location unknown , Media & publishing: General , Women ) , Public: ( Number unknown - Location unknown - Sector unknown , Gender not reported )Issues
Freedom of Expression , Access to InformationResponse
Response sought: Yes, by NGO
External link to response: (Find out more)
Action taken: Both ERT and AMNA responded to Human Rights Watch, including by asserting their independence.
Source type: NGO
Summary
Date Reported: 8 May 2025
Location: Greece
Companies
X Corp. (formerly Twitter) - Other Value Chain EntityAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Workers: ( Number unknown - Location unknown , Media & publishing: General , Women )Issues
Personal Health , Harassment (other than sexual) , Gender DiscriminationResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Resource Centre
Action taken: X did not respond.
Source type: NGO
Summary
Date Reported: 8 May 2025
Location: Greece
Companies
Intellexa (joint venture Nexa Technologies, WiSpear, Cytrox, & Senpai Technologies) - Other Value Chain EntityAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Workers: ( Number unknown - Location unknown , Media & publishing: General , Gender not reported ) , Public: ( Number unknown - Location unknown - Sector unknown , Gender not reported )Issues
Freedom of Expression , Surveillance , Access to InformationResponse
Response sought: Yes, by HRW
Action taken: The government denies the allegations and its links to the use of spyware. Intellexa, the company behind the Predator spyware, did not respond to HRW's request for comment.
Source type: NGO
Summary
Date Reported: 8 May 2025
Location: Greece
Companies
Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP) - Other Value Chain EntityAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Public: ( Number unknown - Location unknown - Sector unknown , Gender not reported )Issues
Access to InformationResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Resource Centre
Action taken: The company did not respond.
Source type: NGO
... 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…
..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. ..