“Expose and stop. Before anyone else dies.”

On Wednesday, 15 February 2023, during a plenary session in Strasbourg, MEP Irena Joveva discussed the erosion of the rule of law in Greece in relation to the wiretapping scandal and media freedom. She stressed that those who blackmail and spy on others must be exposed and stopped before anyone else dies. She was referring to the extreme cases of murders of journalists, and focused primarily on what is happening in Greece.

The MEP began her intervention by saying that, unfortunately, threats, attempts at surveillance, silencing and subjugation are a constant feature of journalism, and have even intensified in recent years with the rise of new surveillance and tracking technologies.

“There are many methods, but we need to look at them holistically. This is happening in Europe, too. It is not ‘just’ threats, ‘just’ attempts, ‘just’ surveillance. It’s also evinced in the murders that we have been seeing.”

Joveva recalled the murder of Greek investigative journalist Giorgos Karaivaz, adding that two years on, the investigation is not even over. The journalist investigated the links between the police, politicians and organised crime in Greece, for which he paid with his life. The MEP also mentioned that in a separate scandal, the use of spyware (Pegasus) had been uncovered, which was conducted directly from the office of the Greek prime minister, and which was used to spy both on the opposition and journalists.

BACKGROUND

The European public was shocked by the so-called Greek Watergate, a wiretapping scandal in which the Greek secret services tapped the phones of several Greek politicians, businessmen and journalists. Giorgos Karaivaz, a seasoned journalist who covered Greek crime and the police, was shot and killed in broad daylight outside his home on 9 April 2021 by two men on a motorbike. After the murder, the Greek police said that the “professional” style of the hit pointed to the involvement of organised crime groups, which had carried out a number of targeted killings in recent years and were known to have been investigated by Karaivaz.

The latest victims of the wiretapping scandal include Greek MEP Giorgos Kyrtsos (Renew Europe) and investigative journalist Tasos Teloglou.

In the World Press Freedom Index report, issued by Reporters Without Borders, ranking the countries of the world in terms of press freedom, Greece dropped from 70th place in 2021 to 108th in 2022, which is the poorest showing among all EU Member States and which calls into question the rule of law in Greece.