Thread by @kostarvanitis

🔻The addresses we heard today were especially useful, if inescapably pessimistic, since as you know #PressFreedom in #Europe, is a crucial pillar of #EU #democracy.>>>

@Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>>>This is a very serious issue.
The @EFJEUROPE, of which every Greek journalist is a member, conducted extensive research, shedding light on the “big picture” of media ownership in Europe, which found that:>>>

#PressFreedom @Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>
📌The vast majority of Media belong -with various degrees of transparency- to multinational shareholders. Their relationship w/ gov'ts is constantly deepening and this concerns all not just the usual suspects>>>

#PressFreedom @Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>
📌Ownership transparency is not mandatory in more than half of EU MSs.

I planned to speak about oligopolies, but I will instead present data regarding journalists being the victims of violence:>>>

#PressFreedom @Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>
📌In #Bulgaria there have been two assassinations (the last took place in 2018)
📌In #France, besides the tragic events at Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan, in 2015, there was another death in #Strasbourg in 2018>>>

#PressFreedom @Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>>>The Commission’s Rule of Law report elects, and rightly so, to focus on the killings of journalists as an important index of journalist safety>>>

#PressFreedom @Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>>>Following the vicious killing of Greek journalist Giorgos Karaivaz, this places Greece in the list of countries, where investigative journalists are being assassinated>>>

#PressFreedom #RuleofLaw
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>>>I’d like to take this chance to inform the Chair, @SophieintVeld, that there has been nothing new on this investigation since the Greek Minister of Citizen Protection was here last, in June>>>

#PressFreedom @Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>>>It was in this Monitoring Group that we heard of journalists in Greece being the subjects of constant #SLAPP s>>>

#PressFreedom @Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>>>Journalist @KostasVaxevanis spoke of a contract on his life, which was indirectly confirmed by the minister (former minister, as of yesterday), since an arrest was made>>>

#PressFreedom @Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>Journalists in Greece have been attacked on multiple occasions, such as @dwnews' Thomas Jacobi, who was covering a protest in central Athens, or more recently my colleague @opentvgr's Eleftheria Spyraki, while reporting on the Attica wildfires>>

#PressFreedom
@SyrizaI @Left_EU

>>>In #Malta it was #Daphne, in the #Netherlands it was Peter de Vries, in #Slovakia in 2018 it was a young man, Ján Kuciak.>>>

#PressFreedom @Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SyrizaI @Left_EU

>I’d like to close my address w/ a great worry, regarding democracy. If for every dead journalist (and the 10s or 100s pressured and coerced), all we do is issue recommendations, we are blind to the problem>>>

#PressFreedom @Europarl_EN
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU

>It is time for a dedicated monitoring center, for all EU countries, and EU legislation that sets down that to be a member of this Union a MS has to fully adhere to the fundamental tenets of democracy and Press Freedom🔻

#PressFreedom
#DRFMG @EP_Justice
@SYRIZAEP @Left_EU