In leading news media organisations in Greece, investigative journalism is the exception rather than the rule. Journalists recognise investigative journalism as a task of great relevance, confirming the role of journalism as the fourth estate; however, they are mostly unaware of the range of financial resources invested in this aspect of journalism. According to a newspaper editor-in-chief, “Investigative journalism should be the dominant element in the media field, but it is not for either public or private media”.
Nevertheless, journalists argue that the decade of financial crisis has raised difficulties and restrictions in newsrooms, in regards to performing their watchdog function. “Over the last years in Greece, the range and number of journalists involved in investigative journalism have significantly declined”, said a news director of a commercial television channel. Therefore, according to another journalist working in a private radio station, the truth was that in Greece, it is not so simple to do investigative journalism under the current economic conditions, as the economy had directly affected mass media. “We [as media] had already been destroyed [before the financial collapse of 2009]. One of the first areas hit by the crisis in Greece was the media”, he added.
In short, journalists and media owners appear particularly keen to produce more projects of investigative journalism than they actually do. However, their strong willingness or desire has necessarily been tempered or suppressed by the economic recession that afflicted the media field and Greek society as a whole. Nowadays, journalists have been turned into multitaskers, something that often deprives them of the possibility of dealing with a newsworthy topic for a long time. As a result, today, in comparison with the past, there has been a decrease in news topics investigated in-depth due to restrictions on the time available for research. Although leading news media have at their disposal trained specialists on given topics, the process of news cross-checking is not equally rigorous on all issues.
In websites based on crowd funding – such as info-war.gr or thepressproject.gr – there is a system of ad hoc provision of funds to specific investigative journalism projects that are documentary in nature. These public contributions ensure the implementation of independent investigations and the sustainability of the news portal. “Based on the money from public contributions, the operating expenses are first covered, which is a fixed expense, and the rest [money] goes to research”, said the editor-in-chief of a news website.
In the leading news media organisations in Greece, the process of news production is mostly based on the model of accredited journalists, required to deliver a news topic by the ministries or other official bodies on a daily basis. This journalistic routine on news composition does not leave much room for journalists to exercise in-depth investigation – this is a privilege enjoyed by fewer and fewer journalists. In the case of newspapers, in-depth journalistic investigation is a mission preferably assigned to highly experienced individual journalists instead of a group, due to limited availability of time and money. “In this regard, over the last decade, investigative journalists have been perceived as ‘luxury editors’”, said a newspaper editor-in-chief.
According to a newspaper editor-in-chief, despite the lack of vital conditions for journalists to perform their watchdog role through well-funded independent investigations, other incentives in newsrooms remain strong, including encouragement towards journalists on the part of media owners. After all, it is argued that “the control and criticism of those in power is multifaceted” and therefore, is not an exclusive matter or mission of investigative journalism, but journalism as a whole.
