“Even the despair of opposition parties is not an excuse that, in order to save themselves politically, they systematically slander Greece,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said in a long post, and accused him SYRIZA for a “attempt to spread false news” on the occasion of his announcement of Greece’s classification of freedom of the press from “borders without borders”.
Mr. Marinakis initially noted that a reason he is making this post is not to answer a party “that collapses with increasingly intensity poll, but because I feel my duty to repel yet another attempt to spread false news against the country”.
She then stressed that this was a non -governmental organization, and said that her report “Finds Salties” explaining the reasons:
“It is misleading that” the government spokesman oversees public media “, while ERT and RES-EIA are not politically supervised or operational. Institutionally supervised by the General Secretariat for Communication & Information, which is staffed by permanent civil servants and is strictly limited to administrative and procedural matters. ERT and RES-EIA administrations are defined by the new system of selecting administrations with a transparent procedure carried out through ASEP, which was not the case until recently and was legislated in the days of our own government. And yet, this is silenced in that report, “he said and added:
“Perhaps the most blatant inaccuracy is the report of the report that” amending the law of 2023 has increased (!) The risk of imprisoning journalists for defamation “. The reality is that the Mitsotakis government abolished the offense of simple defamation, significantly enhancing the legal protection of journalists in the exercise of their duties, as they can now be prosecuted for slander, an offense that is much more difficult to abolish.
– It is reported “frequent use of violence and prohibitions by the police”, but it is also silenced that a few days ago the annual report of the “Platform to promote the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists” by the Council of Europe. The report was compiled by the 15 international organizations and associations of the Council of Journalists’ platform for the safety of journalists (including reporters without borders!). This year’s report notes that for 2024 the downward trend of Greece alerts continued, with just 3 “alerts” for threats of journalists, which have been answered by our state authorities, when in 2023 there was a significant decline of “warnings” -lerts over 80% from 20%. “
Mr. Marinakis continued by saying that he was easily referred to “attacks on the sportsmen of the sports field”, but- as he said- the report “forgets” that thanks to this government, an aggravating occasion was established for crimes and threats of violence against journalists.
“Finally, it is written that” the Task Force has a limited scope “, something completely inaccurate. The Task Force for the safety of journalists is a comprehensive institution with a political consultation mechanism, the participation of professional associations, police, judicial officers and journalists. It is not an ad hoc group, but a stable institutional form with regular meetings and institutional results, recognized by the OSCE and the Council of Europe, “the government spokesman said.
Mr. Marinakis noted in his post that the only truth about the freedom of the press in all EU states is imprinted annually in the European Commission’s annual report on the rule of law, which includes a specific module for the media and the freedom of the press. “Especially in the latest report on the Rule of Law of 2024, Greece’s evaluation is extremely positive, as it recognizes our country’s response to each of the recommendations made by the Commission in its previous reports,” he said, concluding::
“Specifically for SMEs, there are steps of progress, which relate to the strengthening of their administrative and legislative framework, the strengthening of transparency around their ownership status with the operation of the registries A function, and it is also worth mentioning the collective agreement for journalists working in the wider public sector who is welcomed by all journalists’ associations. “