Greece Scores Last on Freedom of the Press
May 2, 2001
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Greek Helsinki Monitor, on the occasion of tomorrow's World Press Freedom Day, points out that, among the countries with a long democratic tradition, Greece is regrettably the one with the least respect for the freedom of the press, as shown by the recent report of the international organization Freedom House. On a scale of 0 [total freedom] - 100 [no freedom at all], Greece scores 30 for the year 2000, which is the worst score a free country can get. The countries with partial freedom begin at 31, the countries with no freedom from 61. All new democracies in Central Europe and the Baltics score better than Greece does. In the OSCE area, only most (but not all) Balkan and former Soviet countries are worse off [Freedom House, "The Annual Survey of Press Freedom 2000" http://www.freedomhouse.org.pfs2001/pfs2001.pfdf]. In comparison to 1999, three countries improved so much that they surpassed Greece: Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia. Our organization, as well as all international press freedom organizations, have repeatedly asked for changes in the legislation so that libel be decriminalized and articles that criminalize the (even in extreme forms) expression of opinion (blasphemy, disturbance of international relations, etc.) or investigative reporting (publication of classified documents, etc.) be abolished.
Press Freedom Ratings for Countries of Europe and North America
5 Norway
8 Switzerland
9 Belgium
9 Denmark
10 Luxembourg
11 Sweden
12 Iceland
13 Germany
14 Austria
14 Malta
14 Finland
15 USA
15 Canada
15 Netherlands
17 UK
17 Portugal
18 Ireland
18 Cyprus
19 Poland
20 Estonia
20 Spain
20 Lithuania
21 France
21 Slovenia
24 Latvia
24 Czech Republic
26 Bulgaria
26 Slovakia
27 Italy
28 Hungary
30 GREECE
44 Macedonia
44 Romania
50 Croatia
53 Georgia
54 Bosnia
56 Albania
56 Yugoslavia
58 Turkey
59 Armenia
59 Moldavia
60 Ukraine
60 Russia
61 Kyrgyzstan
70 Kazakhstan
76 Azerbaijan
79 Tajikistan
80 Belarus
84 Uzbekistan
89 Turkmenistan
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