Investigative Greek Media Outlet ‘Documento’ Condemns Fine as ‘Censorship’

 


Jan 3, 2024. Hellas. Posted by  Balkan Periscope - Hellas

By Eleni Stamatoukou

 

Greek media outlet Documento has condemned the Independent Authority for Public Revenue AADE for fining it 250,000 euros for taking black money under the table from well-known clients who advertised in the newspaper, such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, banks, government ministries and other famous institutions and companies.

 

“For the umpteenth time, there is an attempt to destroy Documento using illegal means to raze the newspaper and the journalism it expresses … it is the worst form of censorship we have faced so far,” Kostas Vaxevanis, Documento’s publisher, told BIRN.

  A financial audit of Documento started in 2021, including from 2017, the newspaper’s opening year, after anonymous letters were sent to AADE stating that the newspaper was guilty of tax evasion.

 However, Antonis Rigopoulos, a journalist at Documento, claimed that “a mafia gang inside the authority … was sending the anonymous letters, to justify the initiation of a financial audit”.

 The authorities confirmed, after the audit ended, that no wrongdoing had been found. However, in December 2023, without offering proof, AADE insisted the newspaper had received black money under the table from its advertising clients, and imposed a fine of 435,000 euros.

 Documento then lodged an objection on December 20, and, on December 29, AADE reduced the fine to 250,000 euros. The newspaper must pay 50 per cent of the fine within weeks.

 Documento journalists told BIRN that they would go to court. If they win, the fine money will be returned to them, but it is a time-consuming process. If they don’t pay, they meantime risk confiscation, as they will be big debtors to the state.

 In February 2023, Documento angered the authorities when it published part of a report by the Economic Crimes Enforcement Agency, SDOE. This revealed that direct contracts awarded by the then-Secretary General of Anti-Crime Policy to combat the spread of COVID-19 in prisons had lost the state €2 million.

 One day after publication, the Deputy Prosecutor at the Supreme Court asked the Athens Prosecutor’s Office to investigate how the report came into journalists’ hands.

 The Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists Platform has called on Greece to “drop the investigation” into the journalists Kostas Vaxevanis, and Vangelis Triantis and told it to “uphold the protection of journalistic sources”.


Balkaninsight

--