How free is the press in the birthplace of democracy? | World News,The Indian Express
According to an article, the centralized Greek intelligence service was closely monitoring the activities of people doing work related to refugees, and even tapping their phones. Malichudis was stunned.
As he read on, he noticed that some of the details in the story appeared familiar. A journalist of interest to the intelligence service, the article revealed, had been reporting an article on a young refugee from Syria imprisoned on the Aegean island of Kos. Malichudis was in the process of reporting just such a story.
Malichudis contacted the journalists, who confirmed that he was the unnamed journalist. According to their reporting, the Greek National Intelligence Service was monitoring his activities for the news outlet Solomon and had wiretapped his phone. Having secured a two-month surveillance warrant from a prosecutor, authorities were free to listen to any of his calls.
“I got really scared,” Malichudis told us. For months, he was in a precarious emotional place. “When I talked with my mother, with my friends, with my sources, I felt really exposed.” He largely stopped using his phone.
In the year since Malichudis first read about his own work in another news outlet, the scandal has snowballed. A financial journalist learned he had also been wiretapped. The government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis admitted that the state intelligence service was monitoring an opposition leader. Two government officials, including the prime minister’s nephew, have resigned.
It’s been called the Greek Watergate.
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