The editor facing trial for breaching Greek privacy laws speaks out about the state of press freedom in his country

There’s quite some irony in the fact that events developing in Greece these past years, during the crisis and in the name of the crisis, are taking place in the country that gave birth to democracy. The coalition government is using the argument that the country is in a state of emergency to push through laws serving specific interest groups while constantly weakening the function of Parliament.

The government’s first victim is the press. Greece has witnessed the development of a system of private media that serves entwined political and corporate interests. In recent years, media corporations have been living on money given to them through scandalous loans from banks (which will, however, not give loans to healthy, productive businesses) and through the selective provision of advertisements. The fate and survival of media groups is thus inextricably linked to banks and related government policies.