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Following the adoption of a law implementing the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) on public service broadcasting in November 2025 (see IRIS 2026-1:1/15), a new law,  enacted by the Greek Parliament on 11 June 2026, contains an additional disposition related to the implementation of the EMFA. This disposition relates to the licensing of regional television stations. Law 5308/2026 creates, in compliance with Article 6 paragraph 2 of the EMFA Regulation, the National Database for the ownership of all types of media (newspapers, websites, radio and television media of all kinds, whether...

A new law, Law 5253/2025 – related to the application of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA – Regulation 2024/1083 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024) and to the public broadcaster ERT S.A. – was passed by the Greek Parliament on 20 November 2025. As for the implementing provisions of the EMFA regulation, the new responsibility of the independent media regulator NCRT (National Council of Radio and Television) to publish an annual report on the allocation of state advertising, providing an overall picture of public spending and based on the...

The wiretapping scandal, also known as “Predatorgate”, or the “Greek Watergate”, concerns the surveillance of Greek journalists, politicians, military personnel, businessmen, judicial and state officials, etc. by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) or by means of the spy software Predator, from 2020 onwards. In the meantime, from 2019, the NIS was under the direct supervision and responsibility of the nephew and general secretary of the Greek Prime Minister, who is also the complainant in the recent National Council for Radio and Television (NCRT) decision, mentioned...

On 28 September 2023 the College of Presidents of the parliament decided on the appointment of new members to the board of the ESR (Ethniko Symvoulio Radiotileorasis, the Greek independent authority responsible for electronic media). Mrs Euterpe Koutzamani, former prosecutor of the Supreme Court and former vice president of the ESR, was appointed to the role of president, whilst Giannis Politis, journalist and political analyst, was appointed to that of vice president (both of these roles being full-time positions). A futher six individuals were appointed as new members (four of them being retired...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) once again confirmed that in a democratic society there can be no tolerance for stirring up hatred, discrimination or violence against LGBTI people. Applying the abuse clause of Article 17 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the ECtHR found that Amvrosios-Athanasios Lenis, as a senior officer of the Orthodox Church, could not claim the benefit of the right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by Article 10 ECHR: Lenis’ expressions and statements, disseminated through his personal blog spot, amounted to the gravest form of hate speech...