Threats to freedom of the press in Greece, which sounded the alarm in the country, include a reporter's murder, the Prime Minister publicly scolding a foreign journalist, and expanded state surveillance

The country in southern Europe dropped five places in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index compiled by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and now ranks 70th out of 180 countries, trailing Poland and Mongolia.

On his account, Head of Media Studies at the National University of Athens George Pleios said that the deterioration over the past year has been alarming.

"Freedom of the press has become a concern," he told AFP.

Pleios added that a raft of press freedom violations in current years included journalists being detained or intimidated and police beating photographers during protests.

What is happening? 

In April, a prominent crime reporter, 52-year-old Giorgos Karaivaz, was gunned down outside his Athens residence. Although the government has ordered an investigation, no arrests have been made yet.

Over the past year, Greece has ignored requests for information on key stories and pressed journalists over negative reports, while Parliament passed a new law in November punishing misinformation with up to five years in prison.

People can now be imprisoned for allegedly spreading fake news that is "capable of causing concern or fear to the public," a move that the Athens newspaper journalists' union Esiea has criticized as too vague and risking restricting free speech.

According to journalists, police and government ministries have routinely ignored their emails seeking answers on the coronavirus pandemic, police abuses, and the migration crisis throughout 2021.

What about migrants?

Greece has been systematically evicting asylum seekers and migrants from its land and sea borders. Human rights watchdogs and journalists have thoroughly documented the protests, but Greece denies engaging in such practices, which are illegal under international law.

According to a letter sent to the European Commission by the interior ministers of Germany, France, and four other EU countries, 17,000 people with international protection in Greece applied for asylum again in Germany between July 2020 and July 2021.

“Greece is not ensuring that these persons are given suitable accommodation and provided with a minimum level of physical subsistence,” the letter stressed. 

According to aid groups, conditions in the camps that drove people to flee the country remain deplorable.

Greece is holding migrants and refugees at a secret detention centre for hours without food and water before stripping them and sending them back to Turkey, an investigation by the New York Times has revealed pic.twitter.com/8UlX2UYNex

— TRT World (@trtworld) March 11, 2020

Greece's policies toward asylum seekers are incompatible with fundamental human rights, according to activists and journalists, who also drew attention to the systematic use of force against asylum seekers along EU borders, implying that these are not isolated incidents.