For 2024, Greece ranked 88th in the annual global ranking of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), making it the worst country in the EU in terms of press freedom for the third consecutive year.
Greece had occupied 108th and 107th place in previous years, while this year its significant rise to 88th place is not reflected in any substantial improvement in its score. In particular, Greece increased its score by only 1.95 points and its significant rise of 19 places is due to the decline of other countries.
It is noted that in 2023 Greece had collected 55.2 points, while this year it reached only 57.15.
The general ranking of countries
As far as the general ranking is concerned, the first place in the world was taken by Norway, followed by Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland.
Greece (88th) is behind countries such as Qatar, Burkina Faso and Thailand. After our country, Benin, Papua New Guinea follow, while in 90th place is recorded the pseudo-state of “Northern Cyprus”.
It is noted that Israel is in 101st place, while Palestine is in 157th. On the other hand, Russia ranked 162nd, while Ukraine ranked 61st.
The last five out of a total of 180 countries are occupied by Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea.
RSF: “Systemic crisis in Greece”
In their report, RSF emphasizes that in Greece “press freedom has suffered a systemic crisis since 2021. The scandal of the eavesdropping of journalists by the National Intelligence Service (ESI) has not yet been cleared up, as is the case with the murder of veteran reporter Giorgos Karaivaz in 2021. SLAPP suits are common and a journalist was arbitrarily convicted of spreading fake news in 2023.” The last sentence refers to the Canadian journalist Romain Chauvet who was convicted for his presence at the airport during reporting.
As stated in the report, “citizens’ trust in the media is among the lowest in Europe for many years. Some large private conglomerates such as Alter Ego Media coexist with hundreds of news sites, which contributes to the large fragmentation of the media landscape. Similarly, a few businessmen run the vast majority of the media while being involved in other business areas. Some of them have close ties to the country’s political elite. As a result, the press is very polarized.”
Referring to the political situation in the country and how it affects the freedom of the press, RSF emphasizes that in Greece “the government representative is responsible for the supervision of the public media, which puts their editorial independence at risk. The broadcasting regulator, the National Radio and Television Council (NRC), accused of being slow and inefficient, has not been significantly overhauled by either the current or the previous government. The National Intelligence Service (NIS), which is overseen by the Prime Minister, has been implicated in the surveillance of journalists, many of whom have been targeted by the Predator spyware.”
At the same time, it is emphasized that the legal framework calls into question the freedom of the press. “Despite constitutional guarantees, freedom of the press has been challenged at the legislative level. New laws passed by Parliament to better protect citizens from arbitrary surveillance in response to the Predatorgate wiretapping scandal fall short of European standards. A new media bill has led to the creation of a controversial ethics commission. Without concrete evidence, a journalist was convicted under the criminal code for spreading false information, while an amendment passed in 2023 increases the risk of jailing journalists for defamation,” RSF said in its detailed report on Greece.
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The entire ranking of countries
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