The International Press Institute (IPI) published a new report examining media capture and the entanglement of the fourth estate in Greece and its impact on media freedom and independent journalism.

This report was authored by Danai Maragoudaki, a Greek journalist based in Athens who works for independent media outlet Solomon and is a member of investigative team The Manifold. The initial report is in English and will be folllowed by a Greek translation in the coming weeks.

In recent years, IPI has been documenting different forms of media capture across Europe in a series of reports. IPI’s monitoring and reporting have outlined the expansion of media capture tactics from Hungary to other Central European states, including Poland. Dedicated reports have been produced on media capture in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

In this report, the analysis of media capture in the EU moves for the first time beyond the borders of Central and Eastern Europe to its southern border: Greece – a country which has often been overlooked in analyses of media capture in Europe.

This report examines media capture in Greece through the four indicators of media capture: capture of private media, capture of public media, capture of the system of funding media and capture of media regulators.

It also provides an updated overview of the current media ownership landscape in the country. After outlining its conclusions about the current picture for media capture, it presents recommendations for how to protect the media ecosystem against capture by business and political interests.

Amidst wider backsliding on media freedom in Greece in the last three years, this report concludes that efforts by the government to improve the overall picture for press freedom in Greece cannot be decoupled from efforts to unwind media capture.

Oliver Money-Kyrle, Head of European Advocacy and Programmes at IPI, said: “We’re delighted to be able to publish this report jointly with Maragoudaki into the state of media capture in Greece. The control and misuse of media to serve vested interests, whether political or corporate, is a matter of deep concern for all those who believe in robust, independent journalism. Journalists are there to serve the public, everything else is public relations or propaganda. We hope this report serves to shine the light on the web of political and corporate connections that seek to control and limit the independence of Greek journalism.”