Authors: Stylianos Papathanassopoulos, Achilleas Karadimitriou, Christos Kostopoulos, Ioanna Archontaki

Greece – (E9) Participation

Newsrooms always closed some space for comments online, but in online forums, not underneath news items. In Greece, the transition to online journalism does not necessarily mean a rise in the interaction between the audience and newsrooms. The trend is that online news platforms close off their comments sections under the fear of legal action. Radio seems to remain the sole medium where audience members can participate without having their voices or comments edited or filtered out.

Greece – (E8) Level of self-regulation

Self-regulation instruments exist, but are not notified. There is some “oral culture” in newsrooms. In the leading news media organisations of Greece, there seems to be no standard procedures or formal internal rules reflecting a typical self-regulation system. The interviewed journalists reported the dominance of an “oral culture” in newsrooms based on self-censorship and informal self-regulation practices. In this context, media organisations enforce their ideological orientation to which journalists must conform. Conflicting narratives and controversial topics are often settled through collective consensus in the newsroom.

Greece – (E7) Code of ethics at the national level

A code exists, but not all leading news media respect it. In Greece, there are five journalism associations, which compose the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Journalists’ Association, covering the whole country geographically and representing both newspapers and electronic media. There is also the Internet Publishers Association, representing the publishing companies of primary digital content. Each of them has issued their own Code of Ethics. However, they mostly share common norms on how journalism should be exercised. Despite journalists’ declarations of loyalty and adherence to the journalistic Code of Ethics, research has shown that they are less sincere than it is thought. In leading news media, there are many cases where loose interpretation of the Code of Ethics proves to be a common practice among journalists, showing disrespect towards ethical standards.

Greece – (E6) Content monitoring instruments

Content monitoring is done irregularly and occasionally by various organisations. The NCRTV is the monitoring body for broadcasting media, a regulating entity independent from, but supervised by, the government. Thematic observatories, as well as university departments focusing on media and communication studies, also conduct relevant monitoring procedures and research projects regarding news media content.

Greece – (E5) Affordable public and private news media

Price excludes only few households from receiving news – Prices of services are relatively low, while the majority of news content is offered free of charge. However, the cost of news media is still relatively high for an average household.

Greece – (E4) Minority / Alternative media

The existing media houses recognise large and mid-size minority groups, and they operate their own media. Since the early 1990s, various attempts have been made to establish fair representation of minority groups in media outlets. However, governmental policies of no-recognition and counterfeit representation of ethnic groups by traditional media left a lot to be desired.

Greece – (E3) Diversity of news formats

Few formats are available, and public attention is focused on dominant news formats. Deprived of substantial investments on innovative ventures, the news media of Greece are characterised by conventional news formats. The transition to the online environment has been slow, clumsy, and in some cases, questionably user friendly.

Greece – (E2) Media ownership concentration regional level

More than two media companies address most relevant regions. Following the media market deregulation and the abolition of state monopoly on broadcasting, regional television stations entered the media field in the early 1990s without receiving official licences, as was also the case for the national television stations. Later on, indicative of the harsh crisis afflicting the media market, is the fact that more than 50 regional television stations closed down over the period of the economic recession.

Greece – (E1) Media ownership concentration national level

There is a moderate concentration ratio, with some market dominance by large companies – CR3 is between 0.4 and 0.7. Despite the fact that Greece has more media outlets than the market can sustain, the level of ownership concentration is dangerously high. The main reason for this is the vulnerable media legislation, whose limitation on horizontal concentration in broadcast media and newspapers permits a specific modus operandi of the market.

Greece – (F11) Protection of journalists against (online) harassment

Journalists can rely on their employers in such cases, but cost or other reasons sometimes compromise the assistance provided by news media organisations. In case of harassment, the main type of support offered to journalists from their media organisations is legal support. However, not all journalists feel adequately protected, or there are cases where they felt no level of support towards them, especially for women journalists.