MacroPolis

Recently Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis dismissed concerns about media independence in his country and described the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) assessment of Greece lying in 108th place in the organisation's annual World Press Freedom Index as "crap".

In this episode, Nick Malkoutzis and Phoebe Fronista look into why Greece has scored so badly in the RSF ranking and try to find exactly where the problem with Greece's media lies.

They speak to Pavol Szalai, the head of EU/Balkans Desk at RSF, about why Greece scores worse than every other EU country when it comes to media freedom.

Also, Yannis Palaiologos, a former Brussels correspondent for Kathimerini newspaper, discusses whether the RSF index provides a true reflection of the shortcomings of journalism in Greece.

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Useful reading

RSF World Press Freedom Index: https://rsf.org/en/rsf-s-2022-world-press-freedom-index-new-era-polarisation

RSF's factfile on Greece: https://rsf.org/en/country/greece

A game for press freedom in Greece by Stavros Malichudis: https://wearesolomon.com/mag/accountability/a-game-for-press-freedom-in-greece/

How Greece became Europe’s worst place for press freedom by Nektaria Stamouli: https://www.politico.eu/article/greece-became-europe-worst-place-press-freedom/

A State of Absolute Solitude by Tassos Telloglou: https://www.boell.de/en/2022/12/08/state-absolute-solitude

Greek Photojournalist Nikos Pilos Arrested and Charged: https://fom.coe.int/en/alerte/detail/107638266

Greece's triangle of power (2012) by Stephen Grey: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-media-idUSBRE8BG0CF20121217