Leading Greek news media change their journalistic staff frequently; employment for a longer period of time is the exception, not the rule. Nowadays, due to sharp decline in media revenues, the lifecycle of journalistic jobs in media organisations tend to be short-lived. As opposed to the heyday of leading news media houses, over the last years, media owners have resorted to the systematic use of short-term contracting with journalists. As a representative of JUADN mentioned,
The truth is that in the past, during the heyday of media groups, journalists had a lifecycle of about 15 years in a media organisation, sometimes being retired from the same place where they began their careers in the industry. However, today, the cycle of a journalist’s tenure in both traditional and new media houses has “shortened” dramatically, resulting often in their staying only for a few months on a website, a newspaper or a television channel and then leaving in search of a job in another media organisation.
The phenomenon of non-permanent positions or freelance contracts is not a working regime that differs between genders. There is also no discrimination in hiring journalists based on gender, according to most interviewees. However, there was a time, especially after 2006, when the advertising revenue began to decline, that media organisations provided job security mainly to young journalists, rather than to older ones, as a means of saving money. According to a representative of Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers,
At the time of the reduction in advertising spending, after 2006, both publishing organisations and TV channels often preferred younger journalists in order to reduce their payroll obligations on the grounds that younger journalists were considered more knowledgeable on digital tools. Today, this has started to subside in both traditional and new media, as the “slow journalism” movement has begun to inspire the Greek media organisations, which are slowly returning to credible reporting and to experienced, reputable reporters and to commentators.
On the juridical level, there are no special legal measures or tools protecting journalists against such dismissals. In terms of labour rights, what applies to all professions is the same for journalism as well. In case of proven illegal and abusive dismissals, journalists’ unions are used to make allegations of support for underprivileged journalists, releasing relevant complaints. Although leading news media are mainly based on permanent staff rather than freelancers, there is no guarantee that a journalist’s position will be preserved for a long period of time. At the same time, there are no professional rules protecting journalists against dismissal because of personal convictions. In effect, Greek journalists are usually subject to a type of self-censorship for fear of being fired.
