REPORTS
International Press Institute condemns issue of arrest warrant for journalist Petros Kousoulou
On 31 August 2022, the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers (ESIEA) issued a statement condemning the arrest warrant issued for journalist Petros Kousoulos. The Prosecutor’s Office of the Greek Supreme Court had issued an arrest warrant for the journalist over the alleged publication of confidential documents from the National Intelligence Service (EYP) in the online newspaper Bam sto Reportaz (BAM), of which Kousoulos is the publisher.
When plain clothes police officers arrived to make the arrest, Kousoulos was not present, but he later voluntarily presented himself at the Supreme Court with the newspaper’s lawyers to meet with the Supreme Court prosecutor. Kousoulos defended the decision to publish, arguing the documents proving state surveillance of public figures apparently without judicial approval was in the public interest.
Under the Greek penal code, the violation of official confidentiality (Law 4619/2019) is punishable by prison time, but only when intent to harm the state is found. Kousoulos’s lawyers argued the article was clearly not aimed at harming the Greek state and was standard journalism.
The Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers has long argued that the legislation used to issue the arrest warrant in this case is considered to be a threat to the freedom of the press and the exercise of journalism, and has been denounced by both the European and the International Federation of Journalists. The International Press Institute (IPI) described the application of this law in this case as a “worrying violation of media freedom” in Greece (1, 2).
In a state governed by the rule of law, where individual rights and the freedom of the press are respected, journalists have the right to freely and independently exercise their profession, free from censorship and influence.
Despite the guarantee of Freedom of the Press under Article 14 of the Constitution,the application of an ‘anachronistic’ legislative framework is accused of violating media freedom in this case.
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