Topic: Freedom of the Press
Country: Greece
Delegate Name: Kristinn Borgfjord
School: Mattawan High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Greece position papers GLIMUN 2009 committees
We the people of Greece are located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, close to Turkey. Our government is officially called The Hellenic Republic, with George Papandreou as our Prime Minister, and Karolos Papoulias as our president who were elected democratically. Our major language is Geek, and our major religion is Christianity.
The issue of freedom of the press is not a major issue in Greece. News, domestically-made variety programs, comedies and game shows dominate the peak-time TV schedules. Our major news agency is called the Athens News Agency, which is a national agency that also has English pages for travelers. We allow our journalists to write about whatever they want with some government oversight. The media enjoys considerable freedoms. However, Reporters Without Borders in 2009 warned of a growing trend of violence against the media and death threats against journalists. It said these were often claimed by anarchists and extreme leftists. There is a risk to being a journalist in Greece because of these extreme leftists, who send death threats because of what the journalists write and report about. We are trying to make being a journalist safer in Greece because it is the right of our people to know what is happening locally, in our country, and in the world. We believe that other countries should also have freedom of the press, so that people are more aware of what is going on in the world. We agree with the UNESCO Freedom of the Press, which promotes freedom of expression and freedom of the press as a basic human right. It highlights media independence and pluralism as fundamental to the process of democracy by providing advisory services on media legislation and by making governments, parliamentarians and other decision-makers aware of the need to guarantee free expression.
