The NCRTV is the monitoring body for broadcasting media, a regulating entity independent from, but supervised by, the government. Its nine members are proposed by the parliament (in effect, by the political parties) and elected with a supermajority of two-thirds.
NCRTV’s powers are mainly regulatory, being a monitoring and supervising body that deals not only with the content of radio and television stations, but also with the wider operation of the broadcasting field. More specifically, the council has been assigned 1) to control the broadcasters’ operation with reference to their informational, educational, cultural, and entertainment responsibilities to the public; 2) to ensure fundamental benefits such as the freedom of expression, political, and cultural pluralism, and the broadcasting of reliable, fair, and balanced information; 3) to allocate licences, impose fines when needed, and take any decision of non-regulatory character. Apart from monitoring the broadcasters’ content, NCRTV supervises their compliance with the journalistic code of ethics in respect to programme variation, plurality of views, protection of minors, and human dignity. In case of violations, meanwhile, the NCRTV committee can issue financial or other penalties, and for extreme violations, is entitled to recall a media organisation’s licence.
In terms of media evaluation, it is indicative that over the period 2009–2018, the NCRTV published a number of reports referring to the degree of political polyphony in the news broadcasts of the leading news media (NCRTV, 2020b). Moreover, in the context of its annual activity reports, the NCRTV has occasionally discussed aspects of the media field with regard to the developments taking place in the television sector, the institutional problems of radio broadcasters (NCRTV, 2017), the developments inherent to the field of electronic media (NCRTV, 2014), changes in media legislation, as well as the decisions taken by the independent administrative authority in its attempt to regulate the radio and television market.
Apart from NCRTV in the communication field, there are also other thematic observatories, such as the Observatory for Racist and Fascist Speech in the Media, operating under the aegis of Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers (JUADN), publishing reports and issuing complaints about malpractices in media content.
Last but not the least, university departments offering media and communication studies also carry out research projects aimed at monitoring and investigating many aspects of media content. The malpractices and misconduct of journalists is a debatable issue, and it represents one of the greatest concerns for most people in Greek society.
Additionally, there are private entities monitoring the market. Nielsen, for example, measures television audience shares among television channels, and Focus Bari offers radio audience measurements. Argos is the only press distribution agency providing the newspapers’ circulation numbers, and Online Publishers Association is the voluntary online publishers union monitoring audio metrics.
