Greece

Greece ranked 86th of 180 countries and territories in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index, scoring 55.05 out of 100. The index assesses the national environment for journalism rather than individual outlets.

Governance changes have developed through several reforms. Law 5253/2025, published on 25 November 2025, amended ERT’s organisation, staffing, governance and funding, and introduced measures implementing the European Media Freedom Act.

Its editorial safeguards extend across the media sector. Article 28 prohibits interference by state bodies, government officials and political figures in editorial policies and decisions, and requires measures protecting editorial integrity and addressing conflicts of interest. Article 26 assigns responsibilities under the EMFA’s public-service media safeguards to ESR, the National Council for Radio and Television, and ASEP, the Supreme Council for Civil Personnel Selection.

The competitive appointments framework predates that law. Selection of the Chair and Chief Executive at both organisations follows Law 5062/2023. ANA-MPA incorporated the procedure into its registered articles in July 2024. ASEP assesses candidates and produces shortlists; the responsible minister retains a role in proposing appointments to the state’s General Assembly.

At ERT, the process also involves an opinion from Parliament’s Institutions and Transparency Committee. Parliament does not itself appoint the directors. ERT announced Konstantinos Papavasileiou’s appointment as Chief Executive on 14 February 2025.

At ANA-MPA, the company register records Aria Agatsa’s appointment as Chair and Christina-Dimitra Synarelli’s as Chief Executive on 30 January 2026, with terms ending in January 2030. The government’s announcement stated that both had ranked first in their respective competitions.

Competitive assessment coexists with ministerial supervision. ERT remains supervised through the minister responsible for the General Secretariat for Communication and Information, within the responsibilities of the Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister and Government Spokesperson. ANA-MPA’s December 2025 recruitment documentation identifies it as supervised by the Presidency of the Government.

ERT’s main fee-collection changes have been deferred. Article 67 of Law 5325/2026 postpones paragraphs 1 to 15 of the new Article 6A until 1 January 2027, except paragraph 3(e). The existing broadcasting fee continues; the postponement concerns the revised statutory arrangements.

State Media Monitor maps two entries in Greece. Neither sits in the independent family.

ERT is classified Captured Public/State-Managed (CaPu). It is a state-owned joint-stock company governed by Law 4173/2013 as amended. The government closed ERT on 11 June 2013, and broadcasting under the ERT name resumed on 11 June 2015.

The 2025 law provides for a nine-member Board: the Chair, Chief Executive, five expert members and two elected employee representatives, one of whom must be a journalist. A transitional provision permits the seven-member Board to continue until the two additional seats are filled.

ERT is financed principally by a fee of EUR 3 a month per electricity supply, subject to statutory exemptions and collected through electricity bills. Liability does not depend on television ownership.

ANA-MPA is classified State-Controlled (SC), following reclassification in 2024. Greece’s national news agency was established in its present corporate form under Presidential Decree 191/2008. It is wholly state-owned, with its registered articles providing for a single, inalienable state-owned share.

Its 11-member Board comprises the Chair and Chief Executive; representatives of POESY, ESIEA and EIIEA; an elected employee representative; an academic nominated through a four-year university rotation; and four additional members elected by the General Assembly on the supervising minister’s recommendation.

Its 2024 accounts report EUR 9.479 million in state grants and EUR 1.879 million in sales, giving combined sales and grant income of EUR 11.358 million. Grants supplied 83.5 per cent of that subtotal, which excludes separately reported other income. Pre-tax profit was EUR 220,905, following a loss in 2023.

Formal safeguards and external supervision exist. ESR is an independent constitutional authority, with a statutory composition of nine members selected by Parliament’s Conference of Presidents. It also publishes political-pluralism monitoring.

Article 10 of ERT’s governing law assigns ESR oversight of programme standards, fulfilment of public-service obligations and compliance with EU public-broadcasting state-aid rules. These responsibilities do not themselves establish effective editorial independence.

The classifications concern the operation of these arrangements in practice.

For ERT, State Media Monitor’s existing assessment draws on interviews conducted in May 2022, August 2023 and June 2024, in which independent experts described substantial government influence over editorial output.

More recent evidence appears in the European Commission’s July 2026 Rule of Law Report. It recognises strengthened governance while recording stakeholder concerns about reduced political and investigative content, staff dismissals, discontinued programmes, precarious working conditions and scope for politically influenced appointments. It also reports that the Media Pluralism Monitor continued to assess public-service media independence as high risk. The government’s stated position is that its oversight is confined to institutional and administrative matters.

For ANA-MPA, MJRC’s May 2022 content analysis found relatively diverse and balanced output. Subsequently, ESIEA’s letter of 17 November 2022 complained of government responses being carried without the underlying reporting or other necessary context, citing coverage of the surveillance scandal.

The November 2025 IPI–MJRC Media Capture Monitoring Report continued to identify political influence over ANA-MPA, highlighting politicised appointments and supervision through the Prime Minister’s Office. That assessment predates the January 2026 leadership appointments.

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