REPORTS
Documento condemn the imposition of a fine by the Authority for Public Revenue as politically motivated
On 7 December 2023, the newspaper Documento announced that the Independent Authority for Public Revenues (AADE) had imposed a fine upon them of 435,000 euros. According to the newspaper, the fine was imposed by the Independent Authority’s auditors because, according to their findings, Documento had received 474,164 euros from advertisers without the necessary tax documents. Following an appeal by the newspaper, the fine was reduced to 240,000 euros.
Documento denounced the administrative measure against it as politically motivated, aimed at paralysing its business and silencing its reporting.
A financial audit of Documento began in 2021 after anonymous letters were sent to AADE stating that the newspaper was guilty of tax evasion. The audit found no wrongdoing. When the audit concluded without any findings, however, the case file was forwarded to another service to be repeated. The second financial audit ended in October 2023, again without any findings.
Another team of auditors then took over to conduct the audit once again, allegedly because the previous audits were incompetent. Then, in December 2023, AADE insisted the newspaper had received black money under the table from its advertising clients, and imposed a fine of 435,000 euros.
According to the auditors who imposed the fine, the real amounts the newspaper received for advertising services were larger than those they had declared, on the basis that the advertising costs declared were cheaper than market rates and they therefore opined that transactions of 474,164 EUR in total were allegedly made “under the table”. The advertisers included, among others, the Central Bank of Greece, Cosmote (Deutsche Telecom), the National Bank, the National Strategic Reference Framework programs (ESPA), the Public Power Corporation (DEI) and the fund of the journalists’ union in Greece.
The incident was recorded under the category “violation of media freedom” by the press freedom violation reporting mechanism Mapping Media Freedom, which is run by the European Centre for Press & Media Freedom – ECPMF, which clarified that, “Documento denied any wrongdoing and denounced what it said were continuous audits and the exorbitant fine as an attempt by the Greek government to close down the newspaper, which has published leading investigative reporting on abuses of power, such as the recent wiretapping scandal in Greece. The Greek Union representing all the owners of Greek newspapers (EIHEA) announced in a press release that the practice against Documento was dangerous and that the existence of large discounts to advertisers is legal commercial practice. Documento said that while it is confident the case will be overturned in court, based on the Greek law the company must pay the full amount of the fine until a verdict is reached. It was not possible to carry out a thorough independent review of the tax investigation. The validity of the claim will be assessed in court.”
Under the rule of law, both individual rights and the freedom of the press are protected, and journalists have the right to freely and independently exercise their profession, free from censorship and influence.
However, in this case, the newspaper Documento has complained that the administrative fine imposed on it is politically motivated and is intended to influence the publishing of journalistic investigations in the public interest. Against the background of the guarantee of freedom of the press under Article 14 of the Constitution, the Greek authorities should investigate these allegations.
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