The newspaper Documento, published by the journalist Kostas Vaxevanis, which brought onto the Greek political scene the scandal of corruption of the so-called “Lagarde list” (and for which Vaxevanis has been given two international awards), is the target of continuous attacks, mainly due to the criticism it directs against leading politicians.
The newspaper is sued by political figures in order for it to appear as a “libelous and with pending proceedings with Justice”, as well as in order to intimidate it. The wife of the Leader of the Opposition, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose involvement with the Paradise Papers was revealed by Documento, the wife of the Central Banker whose relations with pharmaceutical companies have been also revealed, Adonis Georgiadis the former Minister of Health, who is scrutinized by prosecutors regarding his involvement in the Novartis case, are just a few of the actors who are suing the newspaper.
Instead of officially responding to the thoroughly researched and well-documented publications, the politicians in question systematically proceed to suing the newspaper, taking advantage of a legal framework which hinders the journalists’ action, something which is even facilitated by the current government.
The latest attack on the newspaper, regards the legal proceedings against it because it brought about the sworn testimony of a witness involved in a scandal of weapon-purchase. The witness claims that two prominent judges and advisers of the former Justice Minister Charalambos Athanassiou, asked to be bribed in order to release him.
The former Minister did not respond to the publication and instead sent a missive to the Prosecutor’s Office requesting the prosecution of the journalist.
The Prosecutor’s Office responded to the request of the former Minister of Justice in a provocative manner, by following unprecedented irregularities. One of these is that he did not call the former Minister as a witness as prescribed by the law. Despite the bulk of the lawsuits, the newspaper and the journalist have never been condemned and Justice is being used as a tool of the powerful to muzzle journalism.
In practice, such a prosecution offers coverage to politicians, judges and other agents’ possible illegal activities. That is because by emphasizing the confidentiality of interrogation, corruption cases cannot be brought to light!
It follows that by proceeding with prosecution, the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) are brutally violated.
The details of the recent issue are as follows:
Kostas Vaxevanis, journalist and publisher of the political newspaper “Documento”, is prosecuted due to a missive sent to the head of the Prosecutor’s Office from Charalambos Athanassiou, the former Justice Minister of the conservative faction of the government of New Democracy and former magistrate. With his missive, Athanassiou suggested guidelines for how the public prosecutor’s office should proceed with the prosecution of Vaxevanis on account of his newspaper publication.
After that, it is obvious that the Prosecutor did not take into account the article regarding the offense of breaching official confidentiality allegedly committed by Mr Vaxevanis, which reads: “Within the necessary measure, it is not unjust practice to use information or documents made to satisfy the legitimate interest of information of the public opinion. “
In the newspaper article in question, the content of a testimony was revealed, according to which open prosecution was initiated by three corrupted prosecutors. In this case, two prominent magistrates who were closely cooperating with Charalambos Athanassiou at the Ministry of Justice at the time of the indictment, seem to be involved in bribery.
The disclosure of the testimony, the content of which has not been disputed by anyone, concerned Athanassiou’s collaborators. Obviously, in order to prosecute Vaxevanis, the Prosecutor does not consider that a testimony regarding the purchase of defective submarines by the Greek Public Sector (which caused the loss of billions of euros for the Greek state), is of public concern. Nevertheless, within the testimony of one of the accused agents who was inquired as witness it was argued that:
“In 2014, Athanasiou’s lawyer in the presence of his partner lawyer and university professor, requested 800,000 euros, in order for me to be exonerated from my tasks and for Athanasiou’s case to come to a good end.”
Vaxevanis is being prosecuted for using the press as his means to publish a document protected by the confidentiality of the interrogation and will be therefore brought to court on October 1, 2018. The confidential document is a sworn testimony in which it is asserted that the office of the former Justice Minister Athanassiou is involved in unlawful activities, since the ones involved are close associates -apart from prominent judges- of Athanassiou.
The prosecution of Vaxevanis is characterized by legal circles as “another case which can hold the Greek state accountable before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)”. This is because it is the media’s duty to inform the public about affairs and issues of public interest. Respectively, the public has the right to be informed about issues and cases of general interest. The need of the public to be informed becomes more pronounced, when the information regards prominent people in public life or when it regards issues of public interest. For this reason, the ECtHR acknowledges the role of journalists as public watchdogs, which brings about the audit function of the press. This entails the ability of the press to shed light on cases of corruption, as well as the ability to publish and openly criticize them.
