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The study on Media Policy and Independent Journalism in Greece I co-authored for the Open Society Foundations in 2014-15 identified the most urgent problems facing media policy in Greece and how they affect independent journalism. The study was based on desktop research, literature review of sources in English and Greek, as well as a set of in-depth interviews with relevant actors, conducted in Athens in November 2014.
The main findings were that the country’s widespread patronage system has negatively impacted the press and silenced the voices of independent and investigative journalists. The market is controlled by a few powerful interests who dominate the national discussion through their newspapers, television stations, and online outlets, stifling the influence of voices and narratives outside the establishment and exerting strict control over independent journalists. The closure of Greece’s public broadcaster Hellenic Radio Television (ERT) in 2013 by the then Conservative-Socialist coalition government substantially damaged pluralism in the domestic media landscape. At the same time, the ongoing economic crisis and the imposition of austerity measures has drastically reduced the income of private media outlets, forcing many journalists to face layoffs or vulnerable work conditions.
