Greece’s troubled media landscape
Years of recession and austerity have led to job cuts in the media and the shutdowns of TV channels and newspapers.
In this week’s feature, the Listening Post examines the Greek media landscape. Just a few years ago, Greece had a burgeoning media sphere. This is no longer the case. Since 2011, when the country’s economic crisis began, the media sector has witnessed carnage: More than 4,000 journalists have lost their jobs, and many more have taken significant pay cuts.
One of those journalists, Aris Chatzistefanou, was fired for what management called economic reasons, but he claims it was because he refused to toe the editorial line on the media’s pro-austerity narrative. The Listening Post‘s Marcela Pizarro sat down with Chatzistefanou in London to get the story behind the coverage of the austerity push, the Greek media’s own financial crisis and the cumulative effect on freedom of expression in the birthplace of democracy.
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