Articles
Migration and Asylum coverage in Greek media
8 January, 2024
By Maria Kotrotsiou from E-SCHOOL
The Greek Media system is mainly comprised of media ownership in the hands of few, with political and financial power, funded largely by the government or other private sources with interests and business benefits. Apart if challenges related to ownership and benefits, Greek media also suffers from lack of freedom in speech as well as low trust. Based in research, only 32% of Greek citizens trust the media. Moreover, Greece is characterized by a uniform of sources, with investigative journalism being very rare. To conclude, journalists in Greece lack in training and in voice, as well as comprehension and portray of diversity related issues. Journalists in Greece who cover immigration, asylum requests, and refugees confront several obstacles on a daily basis these days, including privacy violations, surveillance threats, other safety-related dangers, and criminality.
When it comes to educating the public about migrants and refugees, including the reasons for their departure from their own countries, the media has to serve as an invaluable resource.It is clear from a research carried out by the Heinrich Boll Foundation in association with the University of Thessaloniki that the voices of migrants and refugees are seldom represented in the media. Specifically, rather than focusing on the experiences of immigrants and refugees directly, media coverage aims to educate the public about the opinions and judgments of the political class and other members of the nation’s elite.
Four out of ten news reports represented migrants and refugees as security threats (‘invaders’, ‘enemies’, ‘attack’, ‘threat’), viewing them as intruders and adversaries at the entrances to Europe and Greece. Similarly, around 75% of news reports dehumanized migrants and refugees by portraying them as resources (to be used for profit) or as subjects empty of human characteristics.
It is crucial to understand that the media serves as the primary and exclusive source of information regarding migrants, refugees, and other minorities for a large number of individuals, including the majority of Greek citizens. This indicates that individuals are significantly impacted and shaped by the way they are portrayed in various news media (television, publications, etc.). Furthermore, the media discourse evidently mirrored strict immigration policies and boundaries, particularly after 2020, when refugees and migrants were shown as Turkey’s weapons and opponents at the frontiers of Greece and Europe.
Because official sources predominate in media discourse, border control and surveillance measures—such as fortifying European borders, restricting entry, promoting returns, or opening closed holding facilities for migrants and refugees—are frequently presented as answers to the issue of mass migration. On the other hand, only a tiny proportion of news reports included human rights-based alternatives (including relocation, resettlement, and humanitarian visas). The need for safe and legal migration routes to Greece and Europe is ultimately obscured by the portrayal of border control measures as solutions to migration and the conspicuous absence of the representation of long-term, sustainable, and coherent solutions based on human rights (Parker et al., 2021).
All of the aforementioned, highlight the importance to implement sustainable media policies in Greece and part of Europe in general, that support the real voices of immigrant, refugees and asylum seekers, and ultimately promote their wellbeing and sustainable integration on individual and community level.