On 5 March 2023, three journalists and a cameraman were arrested by the police outside the courts of Larissa whilst covering the events following the Tempi railway accident. The arrests were made after an unprovoked, according to journalists’ associations, verbal complaint by a lawyer.
These arrests have been characterised as a violation of press freedom by the country’s journalists’ associations, which described the arrests as a “flagrant violation of the constitutional obligation” to protect media professionals.
The incident has been recorded as a “violation of media freedom” by the Mapping Media Freedom reporting mechanism, which is an initiative of the European Centre for Press & Media Freedom – ECPMF.
Under the rule of law, which protects both individual rights and the freedom of the press, 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, in this case, influential journalists’ associations from Greece and abroad have denounced the unprovoked arrest of three journalists and a cameraman during the coverage of events of public interest as a “flagrant violation of the constitutional obligation” to protect media professionals and as a “violation of media freedom”.
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