On 17 November 2022, the Journalists’ Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers (ESIEA) issued a statement criticising the repeated violation of the journalistic principle of pluralism by the Athens News Agency APPE-MPE.
The Union claimed to often receive complaints related to how the Agency presents current affairs issues only through the responses of government officials, without reference to the news that prompted the response or to statements that complete the picture.
The Union’s statement was prompted by the Agency’s presentation of the government’s position and reaction to a Documento article on the wiretapping scandal, without the news agency having previously presented the article itself. The report concerned a matter of public interest, with grave importance for individual rights and democracy.
The independence and pluralism of what is the only news agency in Greece has been called into question by the Greek government’s attempts to strengthen its control over it. Indeed, immediately after the 2019 elections, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis placed APPE-MPE, along with the national broadcaster, ERT, and the National Intelligence Service, EYP, under direct control of the Prime Minister’s Office (Government Gazette: Issue Α’/119/8.7.2019).
In a state that respects the rule of law, where individual rights and freedom of the press are protected, journalists and the media have the right to freely and independently exercise their profession, free from censorship and influence.
However, despite the guarantee of the freedom of the press by Article 14 of the Constitution,the Journalists’ Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers (ESIEA) alleges that the Athens News Agency presents issues in a biased manner that favours the government’s position, in violation of the journalistic principles of objectivity and pluralism.
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