In April 2021, the journalist and special secretary of the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers (J.U.A.D.N), Machi Nikolara, reported an incident of censorship by the management of ERT. She accused them of “cutting” her TV report related to so-called content moderation (of social media in Greece), i.e. the management of content on social media, which she claims amounts to silencing and censoring the views of journalists.
In a post on Facebook, the ERT journalist stated: “I was editing when I learned that my report was being cut and another topic was being hastily prepared to replace mine. Then I was officially informed that my report will not play, although it was now ready and pre-scheduled for the episode of the show “Special Missions” that aired on Monday 12/4. Why was a report on social media censorship cut? I did not receive a serious and substantiated explanation, although I asked for it many times, both in writing and orally “.
Furthermore, on the topic of control of the content of public broadcasting by the management of ERT (who, remarkably, are appointed by the government and then approved by parliament, in which the government hold a majority), the journalist complained in the same post that in a previous episode of the show a last-minute report on police violence was cut, while two other reports that had been worked on for a year have never aired.
It should be noted here that in the summer of 2019 the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, by way of presidential decree, (Issue A ‘119 / 08.07.2019), placed the General Secretariat of Information and Communication, the supervising body of ERT, and ANA-MPA, the Athens News Agency – Macedonian Press Agency, under the supervision of the Maximos Mansion (the Prime Minister’s office). This move was criticized as an attempt to control public broadcasting.
Furthermore, the Prime Minister put forward Konstantinos Zoulas, the former head of his party’s press office, for the position of ERT president. The appointment brought a man from the ruling party to the helm of public broadcasting, a move which was criticized as an attempt to control ERT.
In a state that adheres to the rule of law, where individual rights are protected and in particular the freedom of the press, journalists have the right to practice their profession freely and independently, without censorship or influence. Despite the guarantee of freedom of the press by Article 14 of the Constitution, the above complaint is an alleged case of the violation of the unimpeded exercise of journalistic freedom.
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