The improvement in terms of rights protection, as well as that in the media sector in numbers, is listed by the Minister of State Akis Skertos, in a post.
In detail: “2019-2026: 368 new individual, social and political rights, 10 institutional interventions for the protection of journalists and media freedom, 15% increase in the number of media enterprises and 8% increase in the number of media workers.
What cannot be measured cannot be evaluated. And what is measured cannot be flattened by the forces of populism.
Two of the most critical chapters for the rule of law are freedom of the press and the protection of citizens’ rights. In fact, we often hear the domestic opposition talking about curtailing rights in both fields, denouncing the government for authoritarianism,” the Minister of State says, citing “measurable data on what has happened in these two fields from 2019 to date.”
In detail in “media operation and freedom of the press” he lists “10 institutional initiatives that protect journalists and shield the media market with rules of transparency, sustainability and pluralism.”
-Incorporation of the EMFA (European Media Freedom Act) with Law 5253/2025 – Greece has gone to extensive implementation of the European framework for media freedom, beyond the minimum European obligations.
– Establishment of editorial independence & Greek Media Council – The editorial independence of the media was legally enshrined and a self-regulating Media Council was created for the first time.
-Transparency of state advertising through e-Pasithea – Recording of all state advertising expenditure, mandatory disclosure of programmes, 30% allocation to regional media and exclusion of non-registered media.
-Transparency of media ownership through Press Registers – Operation of Print and Electronic Press Registers with certified media and creation of a single database for ownership transparency.
-Supporting media sustainability and pluralism – Multi-year media support mechanism with a focus on periphery, digital transformation, equality and enhancing quality journalism.
-Supporting media sustainability and pluralism – Multi-year media support mechanism with a focus on periphery, digital transformation, equality and enhancing quality journalism.
-New licensing framework for regional TV stations – Ending the temporary licence regime with permanent licences and strict rules on staffing, news content and ownership.
– Strengthening the independence of public media (ERT – APPE-MPA) – New procedures for selecting management with the APSEP, public hearings, four-year terms, performance contracts and limitation of political interference.
-National framework for journalist safety – Task Force for the protection of journalists, International Journalist Safety Centre in Thessaloniki, trainings and National Action Plan.
-Tackling SLAPPs and decriminalisation of simple defamation – Transposition of the European directive against abusive lawsuits (SLAPPs) within the next two months, funding of a SLAPPs Observatory and abolition of criminal consequences for simple defamation.
– Anti-disinformation policies & strengthening media literacy – National Anti-Disinformation Plan, media literacy programmes, partnerships with universities and development of local disinformation resilience hubs.”
In addition, and according to data from the Ergani system which “records the number of businesses and media workers, the picture is as follows:
March 2019
1,005 enterprises with publishing activities with 11,148 employees
416 programming, broadcasting and content distribution enterprises with 9,301 employees
459 audiovisual production enterprises with 5,995 employees
March 2026
1,009 enterprises with publishing activities with 11,577 employees.
536 programming, broadcasting and content distribution businesses with 10,487 employees.
617 audiovisual production enterprises with 6,490 employees.
The cumulative growth of enterprises and employees in the narrow and broad media sector is:
+15% in enterprises (2,162 from 1,880)
+8% in employees (28,554 from 26,444)
Conclusion: The picture of the media market in Greece and the institutional interventions of recent years are in contrast to those who speak of a total disintegration or shrinkage of the sector. At the same time, a responsible assessment of press freedom requires us to examine both the institutions and the data on their implementation. In both areas, the data show progress, not regression.”
In the other area, “equality and expansion of rights”, here Akis Skertsos says: “Since 2019 to date, 368 new individual, political and social rights have been legislated and enshrined, which essentially broaden and deepen the rule of law in our country, with the following breakdown in 10 categories:
-Judicial protection: 11 new rights (including alternative dispute resolution, digital litigation, extrajudicial correction of cadastral acts, etc.)
-Work: 77 new rights (including protection against violence and harassment in the workplace, extension of parental leave to farmers, self-employed and freelance workers, neighbourhood nannies for working mothers, etc.)
– Pressures – Transparency: 32 new rights (including the creation of a comprehensive anti-smuggling system, the introduction of new digital citizen rights to protect human life and public space from sports violence, etc.)
-Equality: 18 new rights (including a personal assistant for disabled people, the creation of a digital panic button application to protect victims of domestic violence, the introduction of a quota for women on the boards of listed companies, etc.)
-Education: 28 new rights (including free digital tutoring, new standard vocational high schools, non-state universities, foreign-language undergraduate and postgraduate curricula of higher education institutions, etc.)
-Welfare state: 90 new rights (including birth allowance, incentives to relocate to mountainous areas, extension of deafness allowance to all beneficiaries, protection of the first home of disabled people from auction, paternity leave, etc.)
-Health: 47 new rights (including universal coverage of the population by a free personal doctor, free preventive medical examinations, mobile health units for mountain and island regions, possibility of private work for NHS doctors, etc.)
-Children’s rights: 48 new rights (including protection from incidents of intra-school violence through the stop-bullying.gov.gr platform and extra-school violence through the safe youth application, creation of special safe houses to protect victims of domestic violence, new framework for protection from illegal sale of alcohol and tobacco, etc.).
-Environment: 10 new rights (including inaccessible mountains and inaccessible beaches, new marine parks of absolute protection, framework of rules and controls on trespassing of public space on beaches by private persons, etc.).
-Political rights: 6 new rights (including postal voting within and outside Greece and the guarantee of the vote of Greeks of the diaspora in special lists with representation in Parliament).
So let’s set the record straight: Authoritarian governments suppress individual, social and political rights. They do not expand them.
It is high time that criticism of the country – not the government – on rule of law issues both at home and abroad – in European and international institutions – stopped being based on false claims and impressions and took into account the new institutional, social and economic reality that is measurable and documented.
The country has made significant progress in expanding rights, institutional protection of the media and alignment with European standards.
This does not mean that there are no problems. But it does mean that the claim of a supposed “near-dictatorship” or “Orban regime” that we often hear in hyperbole from the opposition is not consistent with the overall institutional picture. After all, the struggle for a better democracy never has an end date.
Let us protect as much as we can the concepts and words because they are not countless and unfortunately, the way opposition discourse is often articulated, they lose their meaning.
All opinions in a democracy are respected, except of course those that express hateful and racist speech. But to have value and a presumption of credibility, opinions that express criticism must be grounded in reality.
This is why,” he concludes, “it is important to maintain the necessary balance between existing and persistent weaknesses, but also the real institutional achievements that our country has made in many areas of the rule of law in recent years, which are, moreover, recognized by serious international organizations that evaluate individual aspects of the rule of law.”
